FLUXBOX\-KEYS
Section: Fluxbox Manual (5)
Updated: 08 February 2015
Page Index
NAME
fluxbox-keys - keyboard shortcuts configuration for
fluxbox(1)
SYNOPSIS
~/.fluxbox/keys
SYNTAX
Variable parameters are shown in emphasis: argument
Optional parameters are shown in square brackets: [argument]
All other characters shown are required verbatim. Whitespace is required where shown, but it is fine to add more whitespace.
DESCRIPTION
The keys file defines the keyboard shortcuts for fluxbox(1).
You can customize fluxbox's key handling through the ~/.fluxbox/keys file. The file consists of lines of the basic format:
[modifiers] key :'command' [arguments ...]
The space between the key and the : before the command is mandatory.
All modifiers and commands are case-insensitive. Some command arguments (especially those that will be passed to the shell) are case-sensitive. Some key names are case-sensitive.
Lines beginning with a # or ! are considered comments and are unread by fluxbox.
You will need to "reload" fluxbox after editing the keys file so it picks up your change.
MODIFIERS
You can get a list of possible modifiers by calling 'xmodmap -pm'. This also shows you to which keys the modifiers are mapped, but the following modifiers are most commonly used:
Shift Control Mod1 Mod4
where Mod1 is the Alt key on the PC keyboard and Mod4 is usually a key branded with a familiar company logo.
There are also some special modifiers that refer to mouse button events
-
OnDesktop
-
The mouse cursor is over the desktop (root window), and not any window.
OnToolbar
-
The mouse cursor is over the toolbar (which is normally at the bottom of the screen).
OnWindow
-
The mouse cursor is over a window.
OnTitlebar
-
The mouse cursor is over a window's titlebar.
OnTab
-
The mouse cursor is over a tab.
Double
-
Limits this action to double-clicks only.
Combining Modifiers
To combine two or more modifiers, just list them (space-delimited) in any order.
KEYS
You may specify a key by its key name (for example, a or space) or by its numeric keycode (for example, 38 or 0xf3).
If you don't know the name of a key, you can run xev(1) in a terminal, push the key, and see the name in the output. If you have some "special" keys that do not produce a key name in the output of xev(1), you can just use the keycode (NOT the keysym!) in your keys file.
Commands can also be bound to mouse events (N denotes the number of the button, eg. 1 is the primary button, 4/5 are the wheel buttons):
MouseN
-
The mouse button
N
is pressed down and held.
ClickN
-
The mouse button
N
is clicked (pressed and released with no movement in between)
MoveN
-
The mouse button
N
is currently held, the bound action is triggered as often as the mouse moves.
There are some special "keys" that let you bind events to non-keyboard events:
ChangeWorkspace
-
Fires when the workspace changes. This can be used to change backgrounds or do anything else you like when you switch to a new workspace. See the
EXAMPLES
below for one idea.
-
Warning
Use caution with this event! For example, do NOT bind this to any action that changes your current workspace. If you break your fluxbox with this feature, you get to keep the pieces.
CHAINING
Key bindings can be chained in a fashion similar to Emacs key bindings using the syntax:
modifiers-1 key-1 modifiers-2 key-2 :'command' [arguments ...]*
To abort a chained command part-way through typing it, press the <ESC> key.
To Bind CTRL+C CTRL+X (Which means, press CTRL+C then CTRL+X) to quit fluxbox.
-
Control c Control x :Quit
KEYMODES
A specific set of key mappings can be activated and de-activated on-the-fly using what are called keymodes. The syntax to define a mapping in a keymode is:
keymode: modifiers key :'command' [arguments ...]
Where keymode is any alpha-numeric string name.
When this keymode is activated (see the KeyMode command below), all bindings prefaced by that keymode name become active (and all other keybindings will be deactivated) until the keymode changes again.
COMMANDS
Some commands have multiple names which are shown below as
-
CMD1 | CMD2
Related commands have been grouped below as
-
CMD1 / CMD2
The commands are broken up into sections as follows
-
-
•
Mouse Commands
-
•
Window Commands
-
•
Workspace Commands
-
•
Menu Commands
-
•
Window Manager Commands
-
•
Special Commands
Mouse Commands
These commands may only be bound to mouse buttons (plus modifiers), not keystrokes. In all cases, the action finishes when the mouse button is released.
StartMoving
-
Start dragging to move the window.
StartResizing [corner]
-
Start dragging to resize the window as if you had grabbed the window at the specified
corner.
By default corner is BottomRight, but may be overridden with one of:
-
NearestCorner NearestEdge NearestCornerOrEdge Center TopLeft Top TopRight Left Right BottomLeft Bottom BottomRight
If
NearestCornerOrEdge
is specified the size of the corner can also be specified to be the larger of one or two following numbers: [pixel-size
[percent-size]] or
percent-size%, where
percent-size
is the percentage of half the window width or height. If no size is given, it defaults to 50 pixels and 30%.
StartTabbing
-
Start dragging to add this window to another's tabgroup.
ActivateTab
-
Activates the tab underneath the mouse.
Window Commands
These commands ordinarily affect only the currently focused window. The OnWindow modifier and ForEach command may affect the window that is used.
Minimize | MinimizeWindow | Iconify
-
Minimize the current window, equivalent to the window button.
Maximize | MaximizeWindow
-
Maximize the current window, equivalent to the window button.
MaximizeHorizontal / MaximizeVertical
-
Maximize the current window in one direction only, leaving the other dimension unchanged.
Fullscreen
-
Resize the window's content to fit the whole screen, without any window decoration.
Raise / Lower
-
Reorder this window to the top or bottom of the window stack, within its current layer. See
fluxbox(1)
for a discussion of layers.
RaiseLayer / LowerLayer [offset]
-
Raise the window up to the layer above, or lower it to the layer below. See
fluxbox(1)
for a discussion of layers.
SetLayer layer
-
Move the window to the specified layer.
layer
should be one of
AboveDock,
Dock,
Top,
Normal,
Bottom,
Desktop. See
fluxbox(1)
for a discussion of layers.
Close
-
Close the current window, equivalent to the window button.
Kill | KillWindow
-
Close a window that's not responding to
Close, like using
xkill(1).
Shade | ShadeWindow
-
Toggle the
shaded
state of the current window, equivalent to the window button. A
shaded
window appears as only the title bar.
ShadeOn / ShadeOff
-
Set the
shaded
state of the window to On / Off.
Stick | StickWindow
-
Toggle the
sticky
state of the current window, equivalent to the window button. A
sticky
window is visible on all workspaces.
SetDecor decor
-
Sets which window decorations will be shown.
decor
has the same format as the '[Deco]' parameter in the apps file. See
fluxbox-apps(5)
for more info.
ToggleDecor
-
Toggles the presence of the window decorations (title bar, window buttons, and resize bar).
NextTab / PrevTab
-
Cycle to the next / previous tab in the current tab group.
Tab number
-
Cycle to the given tab in the current tab group, where
1
is the first tab. A negative
number
counts from the end of the tab group (-1
is the last tab,
-2
is the next-to-last, etc.).
MoveTabRight / MoveTabLeft
-
Reorder the tabs in the current tab group, swapping the current tab with the one to the right / left.
DetachClient
-
Remove the current tab from the tab group, placing it in its own window.
ResizeTo width[%] height[%]
-
Resizes the window to the given width and height. If the value is given in percent, then the window size will be based on the current screen's size.
Resize delta-width[%] delta-height[%]
-
Resizes the window relative to the current width and height. If the value is given in percent, then the window size will be based on the current window's size.
ResizeHorizontal delta-width[%] / ResizeVertical delta-height[%]
-
Resizes the window in one dimension only. If the value is given in percent, then the window size will be based on the current window's size.
MoveTo x[%] y[%] [anchor]
-
Moves the window to the given coordinates, given in pixels or relatively to the current screen size if % is specified after the value.
If either
x
or
y
is set to
\*, that coordinate will be ignored, and the movement will only take place in one dimension.
The default anchor is the upper left corner, but this may be overridden with one of:
-
TopLeft Left BottomLeft Top Center Bottom TopRight Right BottomRight
Move delta-x delta-y
-
Moves the window relative to its current position. Positive numbers refer to right and down, and negative to left and up, respectively.
MoveRight d / MoveLeft d / MoveUp d / MoveDown d
-
Moves the window relative to its current position by the number of pixels specified in
d. If the number is negative, it moves in the opposite direction.
TakeToWorkspace workspace / SendToWorkspace workspace
-
Sends you along with the current window to the selected workspace. SendToWorkspace just sends the window. The first workspace is number
1, not 0.
TakeToNextWorkspace [offset] / TakeToPrevWorkspace [offset]
-
Sends you along with the current window to the next or previous workspace. If you set
offset
to a value greater than the default of
1, it will move you that number of workspaces ahead or behind. If you go beyond the end of the currently defined workspaces, it will wrap around to the other end automatically.
SendToNextWorkspace [offset] / SendToPrevWorkspace [offset]
-
Identical to the "TakeTo..." commands, but again this sends only the window, and does not move you away from your current workspace.
SetAlpha [alpha [unfocused-alpha]]
-
Sets the alpha value of a window.
Putting a
+
or
-
in front of the value adds or subtracts from the current value. A plain integer sets the value explicitly.
no arguments
-
Resets both focused and unfocused settings to default opacity.
one argument
-
Changes both focused and unfocused alpha settings.
two arguments
-
First value becomes the focused alpha, second becomes the unfocused alpha value.
SetHead number
-
Moves the window to the given display head. Only available when fluxbox has been compiled with Xinerama support.
SendToNextHead [offset] / SendToPrevHead [offset]
-
Sends the current window to the next/previous display head. If you specify an
offset
greater than
1, it will move the window that many heads. If this takes the window beyond the total number of heads, it will wrap around to the beginning.
SetXProp PROP=value
-
Sets the xproperty
PROP
of the current window to
value. Delete the content of
PROP
by using
PROP=.
Workspace Commands
These commands affect the entire workspace (or "desktop" as it is sometimes called).
AddWorkspace / RemoveLastWorkspace
-
Adds or removes a workspace from the end of the list of workspaces.
NextWorkspace [n] / PrevWorkspace [n] / RightWorkspace [n] / LeftWorkspace [n]
-
Switch to the Next / Previous workspace. All versions accept an offset value
n, which defaults to
1
and refers to the number of workspaces to move at one time. {Next,Prev}Workspace wrap around when going past the last workspace, whereas {Right,Left}Workspace do not.
Workspace number
-
Jumps to the given workspace
number. The first workspace is
1.
NextWindow [{options}] [pattern] / PrevWindow [{options}] [pattern]
-
Focuses the next / previous window in the focus list.
options is one or more of the following, space delimited:
-
static
-
Instead of moving in order of most-recent focus, move in order of when the window was opened (or, the order shown in the iconbar).
groups
-
Only include the current tab in windows with multiple tabs.
If
pattern
arguments are supplied, only windows that match all the patterns are considered - all others are skipped. See the section
CLIENT PATTERNS
below for more information.
This pair of commands has a special side-effect when the keybinding used has a modifier - It will temporarily raise the cycled window to the front so you can see it, but if you continue holding down the modifier and press the key again (For example, keep holding "Alt" while you tap the "Tab" key a few times), fluxbox will lower the window again when you move on to the next one. This allows you to preview the windows in order, but does not change the order in doing so.
NextGroup [{options}] [pattern] / PrevGroup [{options}] [pattern]
-
Equivalent to NextWindow / PrevWindow above, but with the
groups
option forced on.
GotoWindow number [{options}] [pattern]
-
Focuses and activates the window at position
number
in the focus list. The
options
and
pattern
arguments have the same meaning as
NextWindow
above.
Activate [pattern] | Focus [pattern]
-
With
pattern, this is an alias for
GoToWindow
1
pattern. Without, this behaves like a window command, so that OnWindow events can change the focused window.
Attach pattern
-
Combines all windows that match the
pattern
into a single tab group. See
CLIENT PATTERNS
for more about the
pattern
arguments.
FocusLeft / FocusRight / FocusUp / FocusDown
-
Focus to the next window which is located in the direction specified.
ArrangeWindows pattern / ArrangeWindowsVertical pattern / ArrangeWindowsHorizontal pattern
-
Tries to arrange all windows on the current workspace so that they overlap the least amount possible.
ArrangeWindowsVertical
prefers vertical splits (windows side by side), whereas
ArrangeWindowsHorizontal
prefers horizontal splits (windows on top of eachother). See
CLIENT PATTERNS
for more about the
pattern
arguments.
ArrangeWindowsStackLeft pattern / ArrangeWindowsStackRight pattern
-
Similar to
ArrangeWindows, these commands arrange windows on the current workspace. The currently focussed window is used as the
main
window, and will fill half the screen, while the other windows are tiled on the other half of the screen as if they were tiled with ArrangeWindows.
ArrangeWindowsStackLeft
puts the main window on the RIGHT hand side of the screen, and the tiled windows are on the LEFT hand side of the screen.
ArrangeWindowsStackRight
puts the main window on the LEFT hand side of the screen, and the tiled windows are on the RIGHT hand side of the screen.
ArrangeWindowsStackTop pattern / ArrangeWindowsStackBottom pattern
-
Behaves just like
ArrangeWindowsStackLeft
and
ArrangeWindowsStackRight.
ArrangeWindowsStackBottom
places the main window on the TOP half of the screen, and the tiled windows on the bottom half of the screen.
ArrangeWindowsStackTop
places the main window on the BOTTOM half of the screen and the tiled windows on the top half of the screen.
ShowDesktop
-
Minimizes all windows on the current workspace. If they are already all minimized, then it restores them.
Deiconify mode destination
-
Deiconifies windows (or, restores from a minimized state).
Where mode may be one of:
-
All
-
All icons across all workspaces.
AllWorkspace
-
All icons on the current workspace.
Last
-
The last icon across all workspaces.
LastWorkspace (default)
-
The last icon on the current workspace.
And destination may be one of:
-
Current (default)
-
Deiconify to the current workspace.
OriginQuiet
-
Deiconify to the window's original workspace, but does so in the background, without moving you there.
SetWorkspaceName name / SetWorkspaceNameDialog
-
Sets the name of the current workspace.
CloseAllWindows
-
Closes all windows on all desktops.
Menu Commands
These commands open or close fluxbox popup menus. For more information on what these menus contain or how to configure them, see fluxbox(1).
RootMenu
-
Opens the root menu. See
ROOT MENU
in
fluxbox-menu(5)
for details.
WorkspaceMenu
-
Opens a menu showing all workspaces and windows. See
Workspace Menu
in
fluxbox(1)
for details.
WindowMenu
-
Opens a menu containing actions for the current window. See
WINDOW MENU
in
fluxbox-menu(5)
for details.
ClientMenu [pattern]
-
Opens a menu that contains all windows. If you specify a
pattern, only matching windows will be in the menu. Selecting a window will jump to that workspace and raise the window. See
CLIENT PATTERNS
below for more details on the
pattern
argument.
CustomMenu path
-
Opens a custom menu file. This
path
must be a valid menu file in the same format as detailed by the
ROOT MENU
section of
fluxbox-menu(5).
HideMenus
-
Hide all fluxbox popup menus.
Window Manager Commands
These commands affect the Window Manager, or more than one window.
Restart [path]
-
Restarts fluxbox. This does not close any running applications. If the optional
path
is a path to an executable window manager, that manager is started in place of fluxbox.
Quit | Exit
-
Exits fluxbox. This will normally cause X to stop as well and terminate all existing applications, returning you to the login manager or console.
Reconfig | Reconfigure
-
Reloads all fluxbox configuration files including the keys file, apps file, and init file, if they have changed.
SetStyle path
-
Sets the current style to that given in
path, which must be the full path to a fluxbox style.
ReloadStyle
-
Reloads only the current style. Useful after editing a style which is currently in use.
ExecCommand args ... | Exec args ... | Execute args ...
-
Probably the most-used binding of all. Passes all the arguments to your
$SHELL
(or /bin/sh if $SHELL is not set). You can use this to launch applications, run shell scripts, etc. Since all arguments are passed verbatim to the shell, you can use environment variables, pipes, or anything else the shell can do. Note that processes only see environment variables that were set before fluxbox started (such as in
~/.fluxbox/startup), or any that are set via the
Export
or
SetEnv
commands, below. See
fluxbox(1)
for more details on the
ENVIRONMENT
and
\~/.fluxbox/startup
file.
CommandDialog
-
Pops up a dialog box that lets you type in any of these commands manually.
SetEnv name value | Export name=value
-
Sets an environment variable in Fluxbox. It will be passed to any applications spawned by any future ExecCommand commands.
SetResourceValue resourcename resourcevalue | SetResourceValueDialog
-
Sets a fluxbox resource value, which are normally stored in the init file. See
fluxbox(1)
for more details on available resources and allowed values.
Special Commands
These commands have special meanings or behaviors.
MacroCmd {command1} {command2} {command3} ...
-
Allows you to execute more than one command with one keybinding. The commands will be executed in series. The
{}
brackets are literally required, as in the following example:
-
MacroCmd {MoveTo 0 0} {ResizeTo 1280 800}
Delay {command} [microseconds]
-
Delays running
command
for the given amount of time. If the same key binding is activated again, the timer will be restarted.
ToggleCmd {command1} {command2} ...
-
Alternates between the commands. On the first press of the bound key, runs
command1. On the next press, runs
command2.
BindKey keybinding
-
Adds the given
keybinding
(which must be a valid key binding as defined in the DESCRIPTION section above) to your keys file.
KeyMode keymode [return-keybinding]
-
Activates the named
keymode
(or, all key binding lines prefaced with the same
keymode:) and deactivates all others until the
return-keybinding
(by default
Escape) is pressed. The default keymode is named
default.
ForEach {command} [{condition}] | Map {command} [{condition}]
-
Runs the given
command
(normally one from the
Window Commands
section above) on each window. If you specify a
condition
(See
Conditions, below) the action will be limited to matching windows.
If {condition} {then-command} [{else-command}] | Cond {condition} {then-command} [{else-command}]
-
If the
condition
command returns
true, then run the
then-command, otherwise run the optional
else-command. See
Conditions
below for more information on the
condition
argument.
Conditions
These special commands are used to match windows conditionally. They are commonly used by the If and ForEach command.
Matches pattern
-
Returns
true
if the current window matches the given
pattern. See
CLIENT PATTERNS
below for details on the
pattern
syntax.
If your key binding uses the
OnWindow
modifier, it matches against the window you clicked, not the currently focused window.
To check other windows besides the currently focused one, see the
Every
and
Some
conditions below.
Some condition
-
Returns
true
if any window on any workspace (not just the currently focused one) matches the
condition.
Every condition
-
Returns
true
if every window on every workspace (not just the current one) matches the
condition.
Not condition
-
Returns
true
if
condition
returns
false, and vice-versa.
And {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
-
Returns
true
if and only if all given conditions return
true.
Or {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
-
Returns
true
if any of the listed conditions return
true.
Xor {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
-
Returns the boolean
xor
of the truth values for all conditions listed.
CLIENT PATTERNS
Many of the more advanced commands take a pattern argument, which allows you to direct the action at a specific window or set of windows which match the properties specified in the pattern.
A pattern looks like this
-
([propertyname[!]=]regexp)
...
Match definitions are enclosed in parentheses (...), and if no propertyname is given then Name is assumed. The regexp can contain any regular expression, or the special value [current], which matches the corresponding value of the currently focused window. See regex(7) for more information on acceptable regular expressions.
propertyname is not case sensitive, whereas the regexp is.
If you specify multiple (pattern) arguments, this implies an AND condition - All specified patterns must match.
You can use = to test for equality or != to test for inequality.
The following values are accepted for propertyname
-
Name
-
A string, corresponding to the CLASSNAME property (The first field of WM_CLASS from the output of the
xprop(1)
utility).
Class
-
A string, corresponding to the CLASSCLASS property (The second field of WM_CLASS from the output of the
xprop(1)
utility).
Title
-
A string, corresponding to the window title (WM_NAME from
xprop(1)).
Role
-
A string, corresponding to the ROLE property (WM_WINDOW_ROLE from
xprop(1)).
Transient
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is transient (typically, a popup dialog) or not.
Maximized
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is maximized or not.
MaximizedHorizontal
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is maximized horizontally or not.
MaximizedVertical
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is maximized vertically or not.
Minimized
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is minimized (iconified) or not.
Fullscreen
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is fullscreen or not.
Shaded
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is shaded or not.
Stuck
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window is sticky (on all workspaces) or not.
FocusHidden
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window has asked to be left off the focus list (or, the alt-tab list), or not.
IconHidden
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window has asked to be left off the icon list (or, the taskbar), or not.
Urgent
-
Either
yes
or
no, depending on whether the window has the urgent hint set.
Workspace
-
A number corresponding to the workspace number to which the window is attached. The first workspace here is
0. You may also use
[current]
to match the currently visible workspace.
WorkspaceName
-
A string corresponding to the name of the workspace to which the window is attached.
Head
-
The number of the display head to which the window is attached. You may match this against the special value
[mouse]
which refers to the head where the mouse pointer currently resides.
Layer
-
The string name of the window's layer, which is one of
AboveDock,
Dock,
Top,
Normal,
Bottom,
Desktop
Screen
-
The number of the currently used
screen. If the setup of the running xserver involves independent screens (not Xinerama), the $DISPLAY environment contains something like
:0.1
or
:1.0. The part after the dot (.) is the number of the screen.
@XPROP
-
A string, corresponding to any xproperty (Use either the
xprop(1)
utility or the
SetXProp
command to set a xproperty to a window)
Matches any windows with the CLASSNAME of "xterm".
-
(xterm)
Matches any windows with the same CLASSNAME as the currently focused window.
-
(Name=[current])
Matches any windows on the same head as the mouse but on a different layer than the currently focused window.
-
(Head=[mouse]) (Layer!=[current])
Matches any windows having a xproperty named FOO with "bar" in it.
-
(@FOO=.*bar.*)
FILES
~/.fluxbox/keys
-
This is the default location for the keybinding definitions.
/usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h
-
X key names are in this file.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB
-
X key names are also in this file.
RESOURCES
session.keyFile: location
-
This may be set to override the location of the keybinding definitions.
ENVIRONMENT
Remember that ExecCommand command can take advantage of other environment variables if they are set before fluxbox is started, or via the Export or SetEnv commands. For example, if $TERM is set, it could be use like this:
-
Mod1 x :ExecCommand $TERM
For more information about environment variables, see your shell's manual.
EXAMPLES
Here are some interesting and/or useful examples you can do with your keys file.
-
# Mod4+drag moves a window
OnWindow Mod4 Mouse1 :StartMoving
# If any xterm windows are open, cycle through them. If none are open, open
# one:
Mod4 t :If {Some Matches (xterm)} {NextWindow (xterm)} {Exec xterm}
# Set a different wallpaper on every workspace:
ChangeWorkspace :Exec fbsetbg ~/.fluxbox/bg$(xprop -root _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP | awk '{print $3}').png
# Focusses the next window with it's xproperty 'PROP' set to 'foo'
Mod4 p Mod4 Tab :NextWindow (@PROP=foo)
AUTHORS
-
•
Jim Ramsay <i.am at jimramsay com> (>fluxbox-1.0.0)
-
•
Curt Micol <asenchi at asenchi com> (>fluxbox-0.9.11)
-
•
Tobias Klausmann <klausman at users sourceforge net> (<fluxbox-0.9.11)
-
•
Grubert <grubert at users sourceforge net> (fluxbox)
-
•
Matthew Hawkins <matt at mh dropbear id au> (blackbox)
-
•
Wilbert Berendsen <wbsoft at xs4all nl> (blackbox)
SEE ALSO
fluxbox(1) xprop(1) xev(1) xkill(1) regex(7)
AUTHOR
Jim Ramsay <i.am@jimramsay.com>
-
Author.