| FVWM(1) | General Commands Manual | FVWM(1) |
fvwm1 - F(?) Virtual Window Manager for X11, version 1.x
fvwm1 [ options ]
Fvwm is a window manager for X11. It is a derivative of twm, redesigned to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3-D look to window frames, and provide a simple virtual desktop. Memory consumption is estimated at about one-half to one-third the memory consumption of twm, due primarily to a redesign of twm's method of storing mouse bindings. In addition, many of the configurable options of twm have been removed.
The name "FVWM" used to stand for something, but I forgot what. (Feeble, famous, foobar? It doesn't really matter, this is an acronym based society anyway.)
Since the release of FVWM 2.2 in March 1999, this release is officially deprecated and no longer supported. Please do not report any bugs in this software. Also, for Debian users, the module manpages for this release of FVWM will be found as FvwmAudio1(1x) etc.
XFree86 provides a virtual screen whose operation can be confusing when used in conjunction with fvwm. With XFree86 all windows which appear on the virtual screen actually get drawn into video memory (whether or not they appear on the physical screen), so the virtual screen size is limited by available video memory.
With fvwm's virtual desktop, windows which do not appear on the screen do not actually get drawn into video RAM. The size of the virtual desktop is limited to about 32,000 by 32,000 pixels, but it is probably impractical to use a virtual desktop more than about 5 times the visible screen in each direction. Note that memory usage is a function of the number of windows which exist - the size of the desktop makes no difference.
When becoming familiar with fvwm it is recommended that you disable XFree86's virtual screen by setting the virtual screen size to the physical screen size. After you become familiar with fvwm you may want to re-enable XFree86's virtual screen.
Since fvwm is derived from twm code it shares twm's copyrights.
fvwm 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, 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.
Fvwm 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.
Fvwm 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, windows which are larger than the screen or large groups of related windows can easily be viewed.
The size of the virtual desktops can be specified at start-up. All virtual desktops must be the same size. The total number of distinct desktops need not be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion total. All windows on the current desktop can be displayed in a Pager, a miniature view of the current desktop. Windows which are not on the current desktop can be listed, along with their geometries, in a window list, accessible as a pop-up menu.
"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.
Window geometries are specified relative to the current viewport. That is:
xterm -geometry +0+0will 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:
xterm -geometry +1000+1000will 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.
A geometry specified as something like:
xterm -geometry -5-5will 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, like xterm and xfontsel, allow the user to specify the start-up desk on the command line:
xterm -xrm "*Desk:1"will start an xterm on desk number 1. Not all applications understand this option, however.
During initialization, fvwm 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, fvwm will search for a file named .fvwmrc in the users home directory. Failing that, it will look for /etc/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc for system-wide defaults. If that file is not found, fvwm will exit.
Fvwm will set two environment variables which will be inherited by its children. These are $DISPLAY which describes the display on which fvwm 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.
If you typically use shaped windows such as xeyes or oclock, you have several options. You can make them all undecorated (NoBorder oclock and NoTitle oclock, for example) or you can use the default configuration and leave them decorated, in which case a decorative border and a solid-color backdrop are shown. Alternately, you can compile in the SHAPE extensions by changing a flag in the Makefile, in which case you get the shaped window with no backdrop, and a title bar floats above the window. The shaped window extensions increase the window manager's memory consumption by about 60 Kbytes when no shaped windows are present but have little effect when shaped windows are present.
The basic Fvwm configuration uses monochrome bitmap icons, similar to twm. 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 Makefile.noImake and the Imakefile.
If both the SHAPE and XPM options are compiled in you will get shaped color icons, which are very spiffy.
A module is a separate program which runs as a separate Unix process but transmits commands to fvwm to execute. Future releases are expected to provide a means for these modules to extract window information from fvwm. Users can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre manipulations without affecting the integrity of fvwm itself.
Modules MUST be spawned by fvwm so that it can set up two pipes for fvwm 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 fvwm initialization via the Module option, or at any time during the X session by use of the Module built-in. 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 fvwm is told to quit, then fvwm 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 fvwm 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 fvwm built-in command engine. Text commands are formatted just as in the case of a mouse binding in the .fvwmrc setup file. Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in the sample module GoodStuff. The GoodStuff module is documented in its own man page.
Fvwm attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. As of this (1.20l) colormap handling is not completely ICCCM 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 fvwm and most other window managers.
If fvwm is compiled with the M4 option, fvwm uses m4(1) to preprocess its setup files before parsing. This way you can use m4 macros to perform operations at runtime. This makes it very easy to work with different displays with different characteristics.
For example, depending on your mood, you might want different color schemes. One way of doing this is by using the -m4opt to specify your mood. For a sunny mood use -m4opt -DSunny; for a dark mood use -m4opt -DDark. Your .fvwmrc file might then contain:
0 ifdef(`Sunny',` StdForeColor Black StdBackColor LightSkyBlue HiForeColor yellow HiBackColor PeachPuff1 PagerBackColor BlanchedAlmond ') ifdef(`Dark',` StdForeColor Black StdBackColor #60a0c0 HiForeColor black HiBackColor #c06077 PagerBackColor #5c54c0 PagerForeColor orchid StickyForeColor Black StickyBackColor #60c0a0 ')
The following m4 symbols are predefined by fvwm:
You may well find that if you research the m4(1) manual well and understand the power of m4, this will be a very useful and powerful tool. But if you use any of the symbols which are predefined by m4, you are in severe danger! For example, Sun's m4 predefines include, so if you use that name in your .fvwmrc, you are out of luck. The correct solution to this problem is to put a set of quotes around the troublesome word: `include'.
To help alleviate this problem, the following options may be useful. To change the quoting characters used by m4, use the options -m4-squote and -m4-equote. Be sure to specify both options otherwise m4 will be confused. When these are given, a changequote macro is given before the users fvwmrc file is processed.
NOTE: Some versions of m4 are broken with respect to changing quoting characters and included files. When the quoting strings are longer than one character, the macro "include(<<file>>)", where "<<" and ">>" are the quoting characters, contains extra characters around the contents of the included file. This will confuse fvwm. SunOS 4.1.3 is known to have this problem.
If you are using GNU m4 an additional option is available. By specifying -m4-prefix when starting fvwm, m4 is instructed to prefix all builtin macros with m4_. Thus, include becomes m4_include.
The availability of the m4 preprocessing is subject to the compilation define M4.
These are the command line options that are recoginzed by fvwm:
The following options are available only if fvwm is compiled with the M4 option.
The configuration file is used to describe mouse and button bindings, colors, the virtual display size, and related items. This section describes the configuration options. Lines beginning with '#' will be ignored by fvwm. Lines starting with '*' are expected to contain module configuration commands (rather than configuration commands for fvwm itself).
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying BoundaryWidth.
And that's not all! If you use a line like:
ButtonStyle : 2 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1
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 system.fvwmrc.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying CirculateSkip.
The cursor_type argument is a number which tells the cursor shape to use. The available numbers can be found in /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h and are currently even numbers between 0 and 152. At the current time, the following cursor types are available:
0 POSITION - used when initially placing windows.
1 TITLE - used in a window title-bar.
2 DEFAULT - used in windows that don't set their cursor.
3 SYS - used in one of the title-bar buttons.
4 MOVE - used when moving or resizing windows.
5 WAIT - used during an EXEC builtin command.
6 MENU - used in menus.
7 SELECT - used for various builtin commands such as iconify.
8 DESTROY - used for DESTROY and DELETE built-ins.
9 TOP - used in the top side-bar of a window. 10 RIGHT - used in the right side-bar of a window. 11 BOTTOM - used in the bottom side-bar of a window. 12 LEFT - used in the left side-bar of a window. 13 TOP_LEFT - used in the top left corner of a window. 14 TOP_RIGHT - used in the top right corner of a window. 15 BOTTOM_LEFT - used in the bottom left corner of a window. 16 BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner of a window.
0 X_cursor 2 arrow 4 based_arrow_down 6 based_arrow_up 8 boat 10 bogosity 12 bottom_left_corner 14 bottom_right_corner 16 bottom_side 18 bottom_tee 20 box_spiral 22 center_ptr 24 circle 26 clock 28 coffee_mug 30 cross 32 cross_reverse 34 crosshair 36 diamond_cross 38 dot 40 dotbox 42 double_arrow 44 draft_large 46 draft_small 48 draped_box 50 exchange 52 fleur 54 gobbler 56 gumby 58 hand1 60 hand2 62 heart 64 icon 66 iron_cross 68 left_ptr 70 left_side 72 left_tee 74 leftbutton 76 ll_angle 78 lr_angle 80 man 82 middlebutton 84 mouse 86 pencil 88 pirate 90 plus 92 question_arrow 94 right_ptr 96 right_side 98 right_tee 100 rightbutton 102 rtl_logo 104 sailboat 106 sb_down_arrow 108 sb_h_double_arrow 110 sb_left_arrow 112 sb_right_arrow 114 sb_up_arrow 116 sb_v_double_arrow 118 shuttle 120 sizing 122 spider 124 spraycan 126 star 128 target 130 tcross 132 top_left_arrow 134 top_left_corner 136 top_right_corner 138 top_side 140 top_tee 142 trek 144 ul_angle 146 umbrella 148 ur_angle 150 watch 152 xterm
The first parameter tells how milliseconds the pointer must spend on the screen edge before fvwm 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.
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 fvwm will scroll by whole pages, wrapping around at the edge of the desktop.
The trigger actions which are recognized are Immediate, Motion, Click, and DoubleClick. Immediate actions are executed as soon as the function is activated, even if a window has not been selected. If there are actions other than immediate ones, fvwm will wait to see if the user is clicking, double-clicking, or dragging the mouse. After the decision is made, fvwm will execute only the built-ins from the function definition whose trigger action matches the action performed by the user.
If the following example were bound to button 1 in a window title-bar, then, when button 1 is pressed, fvwm would wait 150 msec to see if the button is released. If the button is not released fvwm will start a move operation. When the move operation is complete a raise operation will be performed. If a button release is detected then fvwm will wait another 150 msec for a second click. If only one click is detected then the window will be raised. If two clicks are detected the window will be alternately raised and lowered. The 150 msec wait duration can be altered using the ClickTime option.
Function "Move-or-Raise"The clicking and double clicking concepts do not carry through to using keyboard shortcuts.
Move "Motion"
Raise "Motion"
Raise "Click"
RaiseLower "DoubleClick" EndFunction
Two special functions exist: InitFunction and RestartFunction. The InitFunction will be called when fvwm is started for the first time in any X session and can be used to start modules, set background patterns, and begin programs. The restart function will be called when fvwm is restarted. It can be used to start modules and set background patterns but probably should not be used to start programs.
If fvwm is compiled with XPM support for color icons then bitmap can be an XPM pixmap file.
windowname should be enclosed in double quotes but bitmap-file should not. Environment variables should not be used in the bitmap-file specification.
If windowname is an empty string then the specified file is the default icon, and will be used if no other icon bitmap or pixmap can be found:
Icon "" my-favorite-icon
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying Icon.
If no IconBox line is provided or all icon boxes are full, then fvwm will place icons near the current pointer location.
Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that button to appear unless a mouse binding also exists.
If this parameter is set then fvwm will ignore this ICCCM convention.
Modifiers 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.
Function is one of fvwm'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:
1 3 5 7 9 0 8 6 4 2
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.
The override should be used cautiously because some applications will break if you override their mwm hints.
If you specify both NoBorder windowname and NoTitle windowname for the same window in your .fvwmrc file the window will be completely undecorated.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying NoBorder.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying NoBoundaryWidth.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying NoTitle.
In the Pager window, pressing mouse button 1 will move the desktop viewport to the selected page (in click-to-focus mode; it will also move the keyboard focus to the window whose miniature you click on). Pressing button 2 on a window in the pager will begin a window move, using the miniature to quickly move the window anywhere on the desktop. Pressing button 3 will move the top-left corner of the viewport to the location of the button press, even if it does not line up with a page. Dragging button 3 will cause the selected viewport to scroll as you move the pointer. The Pager is automatically sticky but does not automatically stay on top.
Popup "Window Ops"Note that if a tab character is embedded in the caption of a menu entry then the text following the tab will be entered into a second column in the menu and the entire menu will be left-adjusted. This is intended for shortcut labeling. The tab character must really be a tab. If it is expanded into spaces it will not work! For example:
Title "Window Ops"
Move "Move"
Resize "Resize"
Raise "Raise"
Lower "Lower"
Iconify "(De)Iconify"
Nop " "
Destroy "Destroy"
Title "HARDCOPY"
Exec "Hardcopy" exec xdpr &
Exec "Hardcopy RV" exec xdpr -rv & EndMenu
Popup "Window Ops"Is the start of a left adjusted menu. Alt-F1 will be placed toward the right side of the menu.
Title "Window Ops Alt-F1"
.
.
.
Shortcut keys may be specified in the menu definition by preceding the character with an ampersand. The ampersand will not be displayed but the character after it will be displayed underlined, and if the user presses the corresponding key then that item will be activated as if the user had clicked on it with the mouse. Only alphabetic and numeric characters may be used as shortcut keys. The shift state of the keyboard is ignored when testing shortcut characters. For example:
Popup "Window Ops"When this menu is popped up the 'x' will be underlined and pressing the 'x' key will cause the current window to be maximized. Shortcut keys are not operative unless MENU_HOTKEYS was defined when building fvwm. If WINDOWLIST_HOTKEYS was also defined then hot keys are automatically added to the WindowList when it is displayed.
Maximize "Ma&ximise" 100 100 EndMenu
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying StartsOnDesk.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying StaysOnTop.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying StdBackColor.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying StdForeColor.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying Sticky.
windowname 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.
options is a comma separated list containing some or all of the keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth,NoIcon/Icon, NoTitle/Title, NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit, CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut, Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Color, ForeColor, BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere, IconTitle/NoIconTitle, and NoButton/Button.
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 fvwm default behavior and can be used if you want to change the fvwm default behavior.
Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument which is the icon bitmap or pixmap to use.
StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the desktop number on which the window should be initially placed.
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.
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.
An example:
# 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 "GoodStuff" 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 "GoodStuff" Icon toolbox.xpm
Style "Maker" StartsOnDesk 1
Style "signal" StartsOnDesk 3
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:
Style "*" NoIcon
Style "Fvwm Pager" Icon
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying SuppressIcons.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying WindowListSkip.
Fvwm supports a set of built-in functions which can be bound to keyboard or mouse buttons:
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The optional argument name is required if window_name is supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called from a menu.
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The optional argument name is required if window_name is supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called from a menu
Here's an example that move the focus to an xterm window when Alt-F1 is pressed:
Key F1 A M CirculateUp "whatever" xterm
If arg1 is non zero then the next desktop number will be the current desktop number plus arg1. Desktop numbers can be negative.
If arg1 is zero then the new desktop number will be arg2.
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?).
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.
Key F1 R N Exec "rxvt" exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh &
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 fvwm will execute to move-or-raise function whenever button 1 is pressed in a window title-bar.
Mouse 1 T A Function "Move-or-Raise"
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:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 0 100
The following causes windows to be stretched to the full width:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 100 0
This makes a window that is half the screen size in each direction:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 50 50
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.
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:
Mouse 1 T A Move
Mouse 2 T A Move 10 10
Mouse 3 T A Move 10p 10p
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.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to a key or mouse button:
The following example binds mouse buttons 2 and 3 to a pop-up called
"Window Ops", whose definition was provided as an example
earlier in this man page. 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).
Mouse 2 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Mouse 3 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Pop-ups can be bound to keys through the use of the key modifier. Pop-ups
can be operated without using the mouse by binding to keys and operating
via the up arrow, down arrow, and enter keys.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to another menu, for use as a sub-menu:
The following example defines a sub menu, "Quit-Verify" and
binds it into a main menu, called "Utilities":
Popup "Quit-Verify"Sub-menus must be defined prior to the main menu in which they are bound. Sub-menu nesting can be arbitrarily deep.
Title "Really Quit Fvwm?"
Quit "Yes, Really Quit"
Restart "Restart Fvwm" fvwm
Nop ""
Nop "No, Don't Quit" EndPopup Popup "Utilities"
Title "Utilities"
Exec "Xterm" exec xterm &
Exec "Rxvt" exec rxvt &
Exec "Top" exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top &
Exec "Calculator" exec xcalc &
Exec "Xman" exec xman &
Exec "Xmag" exec xmag &
Nop ""
Popup "Exit Fvwm" Quit-Verify EndPopup
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.
WindowManagerName is not quoted but name is. name is the name that appears in a menu, if that is where the function is called from. name is required even if the function is not called from a menu.
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 three are sure losers, but the third is OK:
Key F1 R N Restart " " fvwm &
Key F1 R N Restart " " $(HOME)/bin/fvwm
Key F1 R N Restart " " twm -f .mystartupfile
Key F1 R N Restart " " /home/nation/bin/fvwm
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 fvwm 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.
Function "InitFunction"
Exec "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
Wait "I" xterm
Desk "I" 0 2
Exec "I" exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0 &
Wait "I" xmh
Desk "I" 0 0
EndFunction
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.
If arg1 is an even number then the windows will be listed using the window name (the name that shows up in the title-bar). If it is odd then the window's icon name is used.
If arg1 is less than 2 then all windows on all desktops (except those listed in WindowListSkip directives) will be shown.
If arg1 is 2 or 3 then only windows on the current desktop will be shown.
If arg1 is 4 or 5 then only windows on desktop number arg2 will be shown.
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.
A sample configuration file, system.fvwmrc, is supplied with the fvwm distribution. It is well commented and can be used as a source of examples for fvwm configuration.
If the -s command line argument is not given, fvwm will automatically start up on every screen on the specified display. After fvwm starts each screen is treated independently. Restarts of fvwm 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.
Multi-screen support is only available if fvwm is compiled with -DMULTIPLE_SCREENS
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....
Binding a key to a window decoration but not to the window itself is discouraged because when the key-press event finally gets to the window it will be marked as SYNTHETIC and will be ignored by many applications.
Bug reports can be sent to fvwm@wonderland.org.
Robert Nation with help from many people, based on twm code, which was written by Thomas LaStrange.
| January 28, 1994 | 3rd Berkeley Distribution |