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icewm - lightweight X11 window manager
icewm [OPTIONS]
icewm is a lightweight window manager for the X11 window system. It aims to be small, fast and familiar to new users. icewm is called a re-parenting window manager, because it draws small frames around application windows. Windows are manipulated via the mouse by dragging or resizing this frame. It is also called a stacking window manager, because windows can overlap. Many windows may exist, some hidden behind others, while interaction takes place with the currently visible ones. icewm supports a configurable number of virtual desktops. It provides a task bar for monitoring applications and a pager to switch between desktops. icewm is largely compliant with the ICCCM 2.0, WinWM/WMH and NetWM/EWMH window manager specifications.
icewm was originally designed to emulate the look of Motif, OS/2 Warp 4, OS/2 Warp 3 and Windows 95. Since it has a theme engine other styles are possible. The installation comes with several configured themes. A menu allows to choose between themes.
Generally, it tries to make all functions available by both keyboard and mouse. Configuration is very good through various preferences files. However, configuring is not required: it works fine out of the box.
The icewm package includes several programs:
Each of the IceWM executables supports the following options:
The icewm program supports some additional options:
On startup icewm launches the task bar at the bottom of the screen. The task bar consists from left to right of the following components:
The Menu button in the lower left corner gives access to the icewm root menu. This menu has sub-menus to start applications, to control icewm settings, and the icewm Logout menu.
The Show Desktop button unmaps all application windows to fully uncover the desktop.
The Window List Menu button gives access to a menu with a list of active windows for the current work space and a list of work spaces with sub-menus for their active application windows.
The Toolbar is a list of icons for applications which are defined in the toolbar configuration file.
The Workspace List shows one button for each work space. The current work space is indicated by a pressed button. Pressing another work space button switches to that work space. The work spaces are defined in the preferences file. When "PagerShowPreview" is turned on a small graphical summary for each workspace is shown.
The Task Pane consists of a list of wide buttons for each application which is running on the current work space. Each task button shows the application icon and the application title. The active application is indicated by a pressed button. This is the application which has input focus. Pressing another button activates that application: it is brought to the foreground and receives input focus. Other mouse controlled activities on the window buttons are dragging window buttons to (temporarily) rearrange the order (with left mouse button) or closing the application window (with middle button while pressing and holding "Alt").
If there are not many application buttons then a stretch of plain task bar is visible. Clicking on it with the right mouse button gives the task bar menu. Even with a full task pane, this menu can be usually accessed by right-clicking the bottom right corner of the taskbar.
The Tray Applet shows system tray objects.
The APM Applet shows battery power status.
The Net Applet shows network activity. Network devices to monitor are given by the "NetworkStatusDevice" option.
The Memory Applet monitors memory usage.
The CPU Applet monitors processor utilization.
The Mailbox Applet monitors mailbox status changes. The location of the mailbox is given by the "MailBoxPath" preferences option or else by the "MAILPATH" or "MAIL" environment variables. It can be the path of a local mail spool file or the specification of a remote POP3 or IMAP location. For example:
MailBoxPath="pop3://myname:password@host.com/"
The Clock Applet shows the current time and date. It is configured by the "TimeFormat" option.
The Task Bar Collapse button collapses the task bar and hides it.
Not all icewm applets may show up on the task bar. They must have been enabled during configuration of the icewm software. Their appearance is also controlled by options in the preferences file.
Of all visible windows only one can be the active window. This is the window which has input focus. It is the primary receiver of keyboard and mouse events and hence one can interact with the application which created that window. A primary task of a window manager is to allow the user to switch input focus between different windows. The primary means to do this is the mouse pointer. By moving the mouse pointer over the screen to another window, and perhaps also by clicking on a window, input focus can be directed.
The "FocusMode" option controls the way icewm gives input focus to applications. It is initialized by the focus_mode configuration file. The focus mode is set via the Focus menu. icewm supports six focus models:
All non-Custom focus modes override these ten options.
Apart from the mouse, icewm supports changing input focus in two other ways. Both involve the keyboard. The first uses the "QuickSwitch" window. It is activated by pressing "Alt+Tab" or "Alt+Shift+Tab". A window pops up in the centre of the screen with a narrow band over the next or previous window which will receive input focus when the "Alt" key is released. By repeatedly pressing "Alt+Tab" or "Alt+Shift+Tab" one can cycle through all windows.
The second keyboard method involves pressing "Alt+Esc" or "Alt+Shift+Esc". Input focus is immediately changed to the next or previous window, which will be raised to make it fully visible.
And finally, there is another way which is a hybrid of keyboard and mouse control. It involves the "QuickSwitch" popup explained before, after pressing "Alt+Tab" and while still holding "Alt" a left click on one of the list items causes the activation of the related window.
A second important task of a window manager is to place new windows on the screen. By default icewm chooses a placement with minimal overlap, but this is determined by the "SmartPlacement" option in the preferences file. If "SmartPlacement" is turned off then windows are placed in sequence from left to right and top to bottom. One can also turn on "ManualPlacement". Then new windows appear initially in the top left corner and the mouse cursor changes into a fist. By moving the fist cursor to a suitable location and clicking the new window will appear at the mouse click location.
Windows can overlap. Which window appears on top is determined by three features. Newer windows appear over older windows. By clicking on a window it is raised to the top. But both are overruled by the window layer. Windows can be placed in different layers via the Layers menu. Click with the right mouse button on the window frame and select Layer. From there choose one of seven window layers. These are ordered from higher to lower. Windows in higher layers appear over windows in lower layers.
icewm supports multiple virtual desktops called work spaces. A work space is like a screen where a subset of all application windows are mapped. Thanks to multiple work spaces we can more easily manage a large number of applications. The number of work spaces and their names are configurable in the preferences file through the "WorkspaceNames" option. By default four workspaces are created with the names 1, 2, 3 and 4 thus:
WorkspaceNames=" 1 ", " 2 ", " 3 ", " 4 "
This syntax is typical for icewm options which receive multiple values. It is a list of comma separated values each of which can be quoted.
The work spaces are visible on the toolbar. One can switch to a different work space by pressing the work space button in the toolbar, but after becoming familiar with the 'keyboard shortcuts' below one will want to use a hotkey to choose a work space. If the "EdgeSwitch" options is enabled in the preferences file (with sub-options "HorizontalEdgeSwitch" and "VerticalEdgeSwitch") then one can move to the next or previous workspace by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. The "ContinuousEdgeSwitch" option enables continuous movement to subsequent workspaces. The "EdgeSwitchDelay" option says how long to wait before a change of workspace occurs.
To move an application window to a different work space one can use a keyboard shortcut. Another option is to select the Move To submenu in the window menu of the window frame.
If EnableAddressBar=1 then KeySysAddressBar="Alt+Ctrl+Space" activates the address bar in the task bar. If ShowAddressBar=1 it is always shown. This is a command line in the task bar where a shell command can be typed. Pressing "Enter" will execute the command. AddressBarCommand="/bin/sh" will be used to execute the command. On "Control+Enter" the command is executed in a terminal as given by TerminalCommand. The address bar maintains a history which is navigable by the Up and Down keys. It supports file completion using "Tab" or "Ctrl+I". A rich set of editing operations is supported, including cut-/copy-/paste-operations.
icewm supports a large number of hotkeys to activate some behaviour with a single key combination. These are all configurable in the preferences file. Here we give their default values, followed by their preferences names and short descriptions of their effect:
You can control windows by a modified mouse button press:
Clicking on the desktop activates a menu. The middle button shows the window list ("DesktopWinListButton=2"). The right button shows the root menu ("DesktopMenuButton=3").
The title frame of a window also listens for mouse clicks. Left double clicking maximizes the window ("TitleBarMaximizeButton=1"). Middle double clicking rolls up the window ("TitleBarRollupButton=2"). Pressing a mouse button and moving it will move the window. "Alt+left" button lowers the window.
When the mouse is on the window frame then a left click raises the window. Dragging with the left button down resizes the window. Clicking the right button pops up the context menu. Dragging with the right button moves the window.
icewm supports the following signals:
icewm looks for configuration files in the following directories, in the given order, until it finds one:
See icewm-env(5).
See icewm-focus_mode(5).
key "Ctrl+Shift+r" pkill -x -HUP icewm
See icewm-keys(5).
See icewm-menu(5).
See icewm-preferences(5).
See icewm-theme(5).
prog "Mozilla Firefox" firefox /usr/bin/firefox --private-window
See icewm-toolbar(5).
See icewm-winoptions(5).
See icewm-startup(5).
See icewm-shutdown(5).
Examples of the above configuration files can be found in the default installation path or in the system-wide defaults. See the output of "icewm --directories" for their locations.
ICCCM 2.0: partial. NetWM/EWMH: extensive. See the file COMPLIANCE in the distribution for full details.
icehelp(1), icesh(1), icesound(1), icewm-env(5), icewm-focus_mode(5), icewm-keys(5), icewm-menu(5), icewm-menu-fdo(1), icewm-menu-xrandr(1), icewm-preferences(5), icewm-prefoverride(5), icewm-programs(5), icewm-session(1), icewm-set-gnomewm(1), icewm-shutdown(5), icewm-startup(5), icewm-theme(5), icewm-toolbar(5), icewm-winoptions(5), icewmbg(1), icewmhint(1), icewmtray(1), Xorg(1), Xserver(1), xinit(1), xprop(1), xwininfo(1), wmctrl(1).
icewm had no known bugs at the time of release. Please report bugs for current versions to the source code repository at <https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm/issues>.
Brian Bidulock <mailto:bidulock@openss7.org>.
See --copying for full copyright notice and copying permissions.
IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See the COPYING file in the distribution or use the --copying flag to display copying permissions.
| 2018-10-31 | icewm 1.4.3.0~pre-20181030 |