fvwm95 - F(?) Virtual Window Manager for X11 with Win95
look and feel
SYNOPSIS
fvwm95 [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
Fvwm95 is a window manager for X11. It is a derivative of
fvwm, which, in turn, is derivated from twm.
Like the standard Fvwm, Fvwm95 provides both a large vir-
tual desktop and multiple disjoint desktops which can be
used separately or together. The virtual desktop allows
you to pretend that your video screen is really quite
large, and you can scroll around within the desktop. The
multiple disjoint desktops allow you to pretend that you
really have several screens to work at, but each screen is
completely unrelated to the others.
Fvwm provides keyboard accelerators which allow you to
perform most window-manager functions, including moving
and resizing windows, and operating the window-manager's
menus, using keyboard shortcuts.
Fvwm has also blurred the distinction between configura-
tion commands and built-in commands that most window-man-
agers make. Configuration commands typically set fonts,
colors, menu contents, key and mouse function bindings,
while built-in commands typically do things like raise and
lower windows. Fvwm makes no such distinction, and
allows, to the extent that is practical, anything to be
changed at any time.
Other noteworthy differences between Fvwm and other X11
window managers are the introduction of the SloppyFocus
and per-window focus methods. SloppyFocus is focus-fol-
lows-mouse, but focus is not removed from windows when the
mouse leaves a window and enters the root window. When
sloppy focus is used as the default focus style, it is
nice to make windows in which you do not typically type
into (xmag, xman, xgraph, xclock, xbiff, etc) click-to-
focus, so that your terminal window doesn't loose focus
unnecessarily.
COPYRIGHTS
Since fvwm95 is derived from fvwm code it shares fvwm's
copyrights.
fvwm is copyright 1988 by Evans and Sutherland Computer
Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, and 1989 by the Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mas-
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this soft-
ware 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 per-
taining to distribution of the software without specific,
written prior permission.
ROBERT NATION, CHARLES HINES, EVANS & SUTHERLAND, AND
M.I.T. DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFT-
WARE, 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 CONSEQUEN-
TIAL 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.
ANATOMY OF A WINDOW
Fvwm95 puts a decorative 3D 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.
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 but-
ton 2 anywhere in the border brings up an extensive list
of window operations.
Up to ten title-bar buttons may exist. Their use is com-
pletely 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" configura-
tion parameter below.
THE VIRTUAL 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 changed any time,
by using the DeskTopSize built-in command. All virtual
desktops must be the same size. The total number of dis-
tinct desktops need not be specified, but is limited to
approximately 4 billion total. All windows on a range of
desktops can be viewed in the Pager, a miniature view of
the desktops. The pager is an accessory program, called a
module, which is not essential for the window manager to
operate. Windows may also be listed, along with their
geometries, in a window list, accessible as a pop-up menu,
or as a separate window, called the FvwmWinList (another
module).
"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. Icons can also be
made to stick to the glass, if desired.
Window geometries are specified relative to the current
viewport. That is:
xterm -geometry +0+0
will always show up in the upper-left hand corner of the
visible portion of the screen. It is permissible to spec-
ify 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+1000
will 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, or is
there...
xterm -geometry -5-5
will generally place the window's lower right hand corner
5 pixels from the lower right corner of the visible por-
tion of the screen. Not all applications support window
geometries with negative offsets.
Some applications that understand standard Xt command line
arguments and X resources, 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.
You could achieve the same result with the following line
in your
XTerm*Desk: 1
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, fvwm95 will search for a configura-
tion file which describes key and button bindings, and a
few other things. The format of these files will be
described later. First, fvwm95 will search for a file
named .fvwm95rc (or just .fvwmrc based on how it was com-
piled - .fvwm95rc is the default) in the users home direc-
tory. Failing that, it will look for
/usr/lib/X11/fvwm/system.fvwm95rc for system-wide
defaults. If that file is not found, fvwm95 will be basi-
cally useless.
Fvwm95 will set two environment variables which will be
inherited by its children. These are $DISPLAY which
describes the display on which fvwm95 is running. $DIS-
PLAY may be unix:0.0 or :0.0, which doesn't work too well
when passed through rsh to another machine, so $HOSTDIS-
PLAY 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 connec-
tion) so $DISPLAY should be used for local connections, as
it may use Unix-domain sockets, which are faster.
Fvwm95 has a two special functions for inititalization:
InitFunction and RestartFunction, which are executed dur-
ing Initialization and Restarts (respectively). These may
be customized in the user's rc file via the AddToFunc
facilitly (described later) to start up modules, xterms,
executed when exitting or restarting before actually quit-
ting or anything else. It could be used to explicitly
kill modules, etc.
ICONS
The basic Fvwm95 configuration uses monochrome bitmap
icons, similar to twm. If XPM extensions are compiled in,
then color icons similar to ctwm, MS-Windows, or the Mac-
intosh icons can be used. In order to use these options
you will need the XPM package, as described in the
Fvwm.tmpl Imake configuration file.
If both the SHAPE and XPM options are compiled in you will
get shaped color icons, which are very spiffy.
MODULES
A module is a separate program which runs as a separate
Unix process but transmits commands to fvwm95 to execute.
Users can write their own modules to do any weird or
bizarre manipulations without bloating or affecting the
integrity of fvwm95 itself.
Modules MUST be spawned by fvwm95 so that it can set up
two pipes for fvwm95 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 fvwm95 at any time during
the X session by use of the Module built-in command. Mod-
ules can exist for the duration of the X session, or can
perform a single task and exit. If the module is still
active when fvwm95 is told to quit, then fvwm95 will close
the communication pipes and wait to receive a SIGCHLD from
the module, indicating that it has detected the pipe clo-
sure and has exited. If modules fail to detect the pipe
closure fvwm will exit after approximately 30 seconds any-
way. The number of simultaneously executing modules is
limited by the operating system's maximum number of simul-
taneously open files, usually between 60 and 256.
Modules simply transmit text commands to the fvwm95 built-
in command engine. Text commands are formatted just as in
the case of a mouse binding in the .fvwm95rc setup file.
Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in
the sample module FvwmButtons. The FvwmButtons module is
documented in its own man page.
Fvwm95 attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 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 fvwm95 and most other
window managers.
The ICCCM states that windows possessing the property
WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
Client accepts input or input focus: False
should not be given the keyboard input focus by the window
manager. These windows can take the input focus by them-
selves, however. A number of applications set this prop-
erty, and yet expect the window-manager to give them the
keyboard focus anyway, so fvwm95 provides a window-style,
"Lenience", which will allow fvwm95 to overlook this ICCCM
rule.
M4 PREPROCESSING
M4 pre-processing is handled by a module in fvwm95. To
get more details, try man FvwmM4. In short, if you want
fvwm95 to parse your files with m4, then replace the word
"Read" with "FvwmM4" in your .fvwm95rc file (if it appears
at all), and start fvwm95 with the command
fvwm95 -cmd "FvwmM4 .fvwm95rc"
CPP PREPROCESSING
Cpp is the C-language pre-processor. fvwm95 offers cpp
processing which mirrors the m4 pre-processing. To find
out about it, re-read the M4 section above, but replace
"m4" with "cpp".
AUTO-RAISE
Windows can be automatically raised when it receives
focus, or some number of milliseconds after it receives
focus, by using the auto-raise module, FvwmAuto.
OPTIONS
These are the command line options that are recognized by
fvwm95:
-f config_command
Causes fvwm95 to use config_command instead of
"Read .fvwm95rc" as its initialization command.
matically slows things down, but guarantees that
fvwm95's internal error messages are correct.
-d displayname
Manage the display called "displayname" instead of
the name obtained from the environment variable
$DISPLAY.
-s On a multi-screen display, run fvwm95 only on the
screen named in the $DISPLAY environment variable
or provided through the -d option. Normally, fvwm95
will attempt to start up on all screens of a multi-
screen display.
-version
Print the version of fvwm95 to stderr.
CONFIGURATION FILES
The configuration file is used to describe mouse and but-
ton bindings, colors, the virtual display size, and
related items. The initialization configuration file is
typically called ".fvwm95rc". By using the "Read" built-
in, it is easy to read in new configuration files as you
go.
Lines beginning with '#' will be ignored by fvwm95. Lines
starting with '*' are expected to contain module configu-
ration commands (rather than configuration commands for
fvwm95 itself).
Fvwm95 makes no distinction between configuration commands
and built-in commands, so anything mentioned in the built-
in commands section can be placed on a line by itself for
fvwm95 to execute as it reads the configuration file, or
it can be placed as an executable command in a menu or
bound to a mouse button or a keyboard key. It is left as
an exercise for the user to decide which function make
sense for initialization and which ones make sense for
run-time.
BUILT IN FUNCTIONS
Fvwm95 supports a set of built-in functions which can be
bound to keyboard or mouse buttons. If fvwm95 expects to
find a built-in function in a command, but fails, it will
check to see if the specified command should have been
"Function (rest of command)" or "Module (rest of com-
mand)". This allows complex functions or modules to be
invoked in a manner which is fairly transparent to the
configuration file.
and will fail. Next it will look for a user-defined com-
plex function called "HelpMe". If no such user defined
function exists, Fvwm95 will try to execute a module
called "HelpMe".
Quotes are required only when needed to make fvwm95 con-
sider two or more words to be a single argument. Unneces-
sary quoting is allowed. If you want a quote character in
your text, you must escape it by using the backslash char-
acter. For example, if you have a pop-up menu called Win-
dow-Ops, then you don't need quotes: Popup Window-Ops, but
if you replace the dash with a space, then you need
quotes: Popup "Window Ops".
AddToMenu
Begins or adds to a menu definition. Typically a
menu definition looks like this:
AddToMenu Utilities "Utilities" Title
+ "Xterm" Exec xterm -e tcsh
+ "Rxvt" Exec rxvt
+ "Remote Logins" Popup Remote-Logins
+ "Top" Exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top
+ "Calculator" Exec xcalc
+ "Xman" Exec xman
+ "Xmag" Exec xmag
+ "emacs" Exec xemacs
+ "Mail" MailFunction xmh "-font fixed"
+ "" Nop
+ "Modules" Popup Module-Popup
+ "" Nop
+ "Exit Fvwm95" Popup Quit-Verify
The menu could be invoked via
Mouse 1 R A Menu Utilities Nop
or
Mouse 1 R A Popup Utilities
There is no end-of-menu symbol. Menus do not have
to be defined in a contiguous region of the
.fvwm95rc file. The quoted portion in the above
examples is the menu-label, which will appear in
the menu when the user pops it up. The remaining
portion is a built-in command which should be exe-
cuted if the user selects that menu item. An empty
menu-label ("") and the Nop function can be used to
insert a separator into the menu.
off by at signs, then the text between the at signs
is expected to be the name of xpm-icon or bitmap-
file to be drawn in the bottom left corner of the
menu, displacing appropriatingly the menu contents.
For example
AddToMenu "StartMenu@menu-linux.xpm@"
creates a menu with a picture in its bottom left
corner.
If the menu name contains also a sub-string set of
by '^'s, then the text between '^'s is expected to
be the name a of X11 color and the column contain-
ing the side picture will be colorized with that
color. For example
AddToMenu "StartMenu@menu-linux.xpm@^blue^"
creates a menu with a picture in its bottom left
corner and colorizes with blue the column contain-
ing the picture.
In both cases, the name of the resulting menu is
name specified, stripped of the substrings.
If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is
set off by stars, then the text between the stars
is expected to be the name of an xpm-icon or
bitmap-file to insert in the menu. For example
+ "Calculator*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc
inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a
picture of a calculator above it. The following:
+ "*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc
Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the pic-
ture.
If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is
set off by percent signs, then the text between the
percent signs is expected to be the name of an xpm-
icon or bitmap-file to insert to the left of the
menu label. For example
+ "Calculator%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc
inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a
picture of a calculator to the left. The follow-
+ "%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc
Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the pic-
ture. The pictures used with this feature should
be small (perhaps 16x16).
AddToFunc
Begins or add to a function definition. Here's an
example:
AddToFunc Move-or-Raise "I" Raise
+ "M" Move
+ "D" Lower
The function name is Move-or-Raise, and could be
invoked from a menu or a mouse binding or key bind-
ing:
Mouse 1 TS A Move-or-Raise
The quoted portion of the function tells what kind
of action will trigger the command which follows
it. "I" stands for Immediate, and is executed as
soon as the function is invoked. "M" stands for
Motion, ie if the user starts moving the mouse.
"C" stands for Click, ie, if the user presses and
releases the mouse in a short period of time
(ClickTime milliseconds). "D" stands for double-
click. The action "I" will cause an action to be
performed on the button-press, if the function is
invoked with prior knowledge of which window to act
on.
The special symbols $w and $0 through $9 are avail-
able in the ComplexFunctions or Macros, or whatever
you want to call them. Within a macro, $w is
expanded to the window-id (expressed in hex, ie
0x10023c) of the window for which the macro was
called. $0 though $9 are the arguments to the
macro, so if you call
Key F10 R A Function MailFunction xmh "-font fixed"
and MailFunction is
+ "I" Next [$0] focus
+ "I" None [$0] Exec $0 $1
Then the last line of the function becomes
+ "I" None [xmh] Exec xmh -font fixed
The expansion is performed as the function is exe-
cuted, so you can use the same function with all
sorts of different arguments. I could use
Key F11 R A Function MailFunction zmail "-bg pink"
in the same .fvwm95rc, if I wanted. An example of
using $w is:
AddToFunc PrintFunction "I" Raise
+ "I" Exec xdpr -id $w
Note that $$ is expanded to $.
Beep As might be expected, this makes the terminal beep.
ButtonStyle button# pixmap
Defines a pixmap to be displayed on a title-bar
button. button# is the title-bar button, and is
between 0 and 9. Only one pixmap can be specified.
ButtonStyle 2 mini-close.xpm
The pixmap specification can be given as an abso-
lute or relative pathname (see PixmapPath). If any
of the pixmaps cannot be found, the entire button
reverts to a simple rectangle with no pixmaps.
ClickTime delay
Specifies the maximum delay (in milliseconds)
between a button press and a button release for the
Function built-in to consider the action a mouse
click. The default delay is 150 milliseconds.
Close If the window accepts the delete window protocol a
message is sent to the window asking it to grace-
dow is destroyed.
ColormapFocus [FollowsMouse | FollowsFocus]
By default, fvwm95 installs the colormap of the
window that the cursor is in. If you use Colormap-
Focus FollowsFocus, then the installed colormap
will be the one for the window that currently has
the keyboard focus.
CursorMove horizonal vertical
Moves the mouse pointer by horizontal pages in the
X direction and vertical pages in the Y direction.
Either or both entries may be negative. Both hori-
zontal and vertical values are expressed in percent
of pages, so "CursorMove 100 100" means to move
down and left by one full page. "CursorMove 50 25"
means to move left half a page and down a quarter
of a page. The CursorMove function should not be
called from pop-up menus.
DefaultColors winfore winback titlefore titleback
Sets the default color schemes. Here winback
defines the background (border) color of all win-
dows, including the menu windows; /fIwinfore/fP is
used for the menu text; titleback specifies the
background color for title bars of non selected
windows; titlefore is the color used in the title
text of non selected windows.
Delete Sends a message to a window asking that it remove
itself, frequently causing the application to exit.
Desk arg1 arg2
Changes to another desktop (workspace, room).
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.
or are currently being displayed are active. Desk-
top numbers must be between 2147483647 and
-2147483648 (is that enough?).
DeskTopSize HorizontalxVertical
Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the
physical screen size.
Destroy
Destroys an application window, which usually
causes the application to crash and burn.
DestroyFunc
Deletes a function, so that subsequent references
to it are no longer valid. You can use this to
change the contents of a function during an fvwm95
session. The function can be rebuilt using AddTo-
Func.
DestroyFunc "PrintFunction"
DestroyMenu
Deletes a menu, so that subsequent references to it
are no longer valid. You can use this to change
the contents of a menu during an fvwm95 session.
The menu can be rebuilt using AddToMenu.
DestroyMenu "Utilities"
DestroyModuleConfig
Deletes module configuration entries, so that new
configuration lines may be entered instead. You
can use this to change the the way a module runs
during an fvwm session without restarting. Wild-
cards can be used for portions of the name as well.
DestroyModuleConfig FvwmFormFore
DestroyModuleConfig FvwmButtons*
Tells how hard it should be to change the desktop
viewport by moving the mouse over the edge of the
screen and how hard it should be to move a window
over the edge of the screen.
The first parameter tells how milliseconds the
pointer must spend on the screen edge before fvwm95
will move the viewport. This is intended for peo-
ple who use "EdgeScroll 100 100" but find them-
selves 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 pos-
sible 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 diffi-
cult but not impossible.
EdgeScroll horizontal vertical
Specifies the percentage of a page to scroll when
the cursor hits the edge of a page. If you don't
want any paging or scrolling when you hit the edge
of a page include "EdgeScroll 0 0" in your
.fvwm95rc file. If you want whole pages, use
"EdgeScroll 100 100". Both horizontal and vertical
should be positive numbers.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are mul-
tiplied by 1000 then scrolling will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop. If "EdgeScroll 100000
100000" is used fvwm95 will scroll by whole pages,
wrapping around at the edge of the desktop.
Exec command
Executes command. Exec does not require an addi-
tional 'exec' at the beginning or '&' at the end of
the command.
The following example binds function key F1 in the
root window, with no modifiers, to the exec func-
tion. The program rxvt will be started with an
Key F1 R N Exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh
ExecUseShell [shell]
Makes the Exec command use the specified shell, or
the value of the $SHELL environment variable if no
shell is specified, instead of the default Bourne
shell (/bin/sh).
ExecUseShell
ExecUseShell /usr/local/bin/tcsh
Focus Moves the viewport or window as needed to make the
selected window visible. Sets the keyboard focus
to the selected window. Raises the window if
needed to make it visible. Does not warp the
pointer into the selected window (see WarpToWindow
function). Does not de-iconify.
Function FunctionName
Used to bind a previously defined function to a key
or mouse button.
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 fvwm95 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
The keyword "Function" may be omitted if "Function-
Name" does not coincide with an fvwm95 built-in
function name
GotoPage x y
Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The
upper left page is (0,0), the upper right is (N,0),
where N is one less than the current number of hor-
izontal pages specified in the DeskTopSize command.
The lower left page is (0,M), and the lower right
page is (N,M), where M is the desktop's vertical
menu.
HilightColors textcolor backgroundcolor
Specified the text and background colors for the
title bar on the window which currently has the
keyboard focus (selected window).
IconFont fontname
Makes fvwm95 use font fontname for icon labels. If
omitted, the menu font (specified by the MenuFont
configuration parameter) will be used instead.
Iconify [ value ]
Iconifies a window if it is not already iconified
or de-iconifies it if it is already iconified. If
the optional argument value is positive the only
iconification will be allowed. It the optional
argument is negative only de-iconification will be
allowed.
IconPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names
of directories where bitmap (monochrome) icons can
be found. Each path should start with a slash.
Environment variables can be used here as well
(i.e. $HOME or ${HOME}).
Note: if the FvwmM4 is used to parse your rc files,
then m4 may want to mangle the word "include" which
will frequently show up in the IconPath or Pixmap-
Path command. To fix this add undefine(`include')
prior to the IconPath command, or better use the
'-m4-prefix' option to force all m4 directives to
have a prefix of "m4_" (see the FvwmM4 man page).
Key keyname Context Modifiers Function
Binds a keyboard key to a specified fvwm95 built-in
function, or removes the binding if Function is
'-'. Definition is the same as for a mouse binding
except that the mouse button number is replaced
with a key name. The keyname is one of the entries
from /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, with the leading
The following example binds the built in window
list to pop up when Alt-Ctrl-Shift-F11 is hit, no
matter where the mouse pointer is:
Key F11 A SCM WindowList
Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause
that button to appear unless a mouse binding also
exists.
KillModule name
Causes the module which was invoked with name name
to be killed. name may include wild-cards.
Lower Allows the user to lower a window.
Maximize [ horizontal vertical ]
Without its optional arguments Maximize causes the
window to alternately switch from a full-screen
size to its normal size.
With the optional arguments horizontal and verti-
cal, 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.
(horizontal and/or vertical), then the scroll
amount will be measured in pixels.
Menu menu-name double-click-action
Causes a previously defined menu to be popped up in
a "sticky" manner. That is, if the user invokes
the menu with a click action instead of a drag
action, the menu will stay up. The command double-
click-action will be invoked if the user double-
clicks when bringing the menu up.
MenuFont fontname
Makes fvwm95 use font fontname for menu entries.
If omitted, the fixed font will be used instead.
Module ModuleName
Specifies a module which should be spawned during
initialization. At the current time the available
modules (included with fvwm95) are FvwmAudio (makes
sounds to go with window manager actions), FvwmAuto
(an auto raise module), FvwmBacker (to change the
background when you change desktops), FvwmBanner
(to display a spiffy XPM), FvwmButtons (brings up a
customizable tool bar), FvwmCpp (to preprocess your
the mwm IconBox), FvwmIdent (to get window info),
FvwmM4 (to preprocess your .fvwm95rc with m4),
FvwmPager (a mini version of the desktop), FvwmSave
(saves the desktop state in .xinitrc style), Fvwm-
SaveDesk (saves the desktop state in fvwm95 com-
mands), FvwmScroll (puts scrollbars on any window),
FvwmTalk (to interactively run fvwm commands),
FvwmTaskBar (a Win95-like taskbar), and FvwmWinList
(a window list). These modules have their own man
pages. There are other modules out on there as
well.
Modules can be short lived transient programs or,
like FvwmButtons, can remain for the duration of
the X session. Modules will be terminated by the
window manager prior to restarts and quits, if pos-
sible. See the introductory section on modules.
The keyword "module" may be omitted if ModuleName
is distinct from all built-in and function names.
Specifies a colon separated list of paths for
fvwm95 to search when looking for a module to load.
Individual directories do not need trailing
slashes. Environment variables can be used here as
well (i.e. $HOME or ${HOME}).
Mouse Button Context Modifiers Function
Defines a mouse binding, or removes the binding if
Function is zero then any button will perform the
specified function. Context describes where the
binding applies. Valid contexts are R for the root
window, W for an application window, T for a window
title bar, S for a window side, top, or bottom bar,
F for a window frame (the corners), I for an Icon
window, or 0 through 9 for title-bar buttons, or
any combination of these letters. A is for any
context except for title-bar buttons. For
instance, a context of FST will apply when the
mouse is anywhere in a window's border except the
title-bar buttons.
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 fvwm95's built-in functions.
The title bar buttons are numbered with odd num-
bered buttons on the left side of the title bar and
even numbers on the right. Smaller-numbered but-
tons 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 sum-
mary, 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.
Move [ x y ]
dow will be moved. If called from the root window
then the user will be allowed to select the target
window.
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 indi-
cated. 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.
Nop Does nothing. This is used to insert a blank line
or separator in a menu. If the menu item specifi-
cation is Nop " ", then a blank line is inserted.
If it looks like Nop "", then a separator line is
inserted. Can also be used as the double-click
action for Menu.
Next [conditions] command
Performs command (typically Focus) on the next win-
dow which satisfies all conditions. Conditions
include "iconic", "!iconic", "CurrentDesk", "Visi-
ble", "!Visible", and "CurrentScreen". In addi-
tion, the condition may include a window name to
match to. The window name may include the wild-
cards * and ?. The window name, class, and
resource will be considered when attempting to find
a match.
None [arguments] command
Performs command if no window which satisfies all
conditions exists. Conditions include "iconic",
may include a window name to match to. The window
name may include the wildcards * and ?. The window
name, class, and resource will be considered when
attempting to find a match.
OpaqueMoveSize percentage
Tells fvwm95 the maximum size window with which
opaque window movement should be used. The per-
centage is percent of the total screen area. With
"OpaqueMove 0" all windows will be moved using the
traditional rubber-band outline. With "OpaqueMove
100" all windows will be move as solid windows.
The default is "OpaqueMove 5", which allows small
windows to be moved in an opaque manner but large
windows are moved as rubber-bands.
PipeRead cmd
Causes fvwm95 to read commands outputted from the
program named cmd. Useful for building up dynamic
menu entries based on a directories contents, for
example.
PixmapPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names
of directories where pixmap (color) icons can be
found. Each path should start with a slash. Envi-
ronment variables can be used here as well (i.e.
$HOME or ${HOME}).
Popup PopupName
This built-in has two purposes: to bind a menu to a
key or mouse button, and to bind a sub-menu into a
menu. The formats for the two purposes differ
slightly.
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". The menu will
pop up if the buttons 2 or 3 are pressed in the
window frame, side-bar, or title-bar, with no
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 built in. Pop-ups can be operated with-
out using the mouse by binding to keys and oper-
ating 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
"RootMenu":
AddToMenu Quit-Verify "Really Quit Fvwm?" Title
+ "Yes, Really Quit" Quit
+ "Restart Fvwm95" Restart fvwm95
+ "Restart Fvwm2" Restart fvwm2
+ "Restart Fvwm 1.xx" Restart fvwm
+ "" Nop
+ "No, Don't Quit" Nop
AddToMenu RootMenu "Root Menu" Title
+ "Open an XTerm Window" Popup NewWindowMenu
+ "Login as Root" Exec xterm -fg green -T Root -n Root -e su -
+ "Login as Anyone" Popup AnyoneMenu
+ "Remote Hosts" Popup HostMenu
+ "" Nop
+ "X utilities" Popup Xutils
+ "" Nop
+ "Fvwm Modules" Popup Module-Popup
+ "Fvwm Window Ops" Popup Window-Ops
+ "" Nop
+ "Previous Focus" Prev [*] Focus
+ "Next Focus" Next [*] Focus
+ "" Nop
+ "Refresh screen" Refresh
+ "Recapture screen" Recapture
+ "" Nop
+ "Reset X defaults" Exec xrdb -load $HOME/.Xdefaults
+ "" Nop
+ "" Nop
+ "Quit" Popup Quit-Verify
Popup differs from Menu in that pop-ups do not stay
up if the user simply clicks. These are Twm style
popup-menus, which are a little hard on the wrist.
Menu provides Motif or Microsoft-Windows style
window which satisfies all conditions. Conditions
include "iconic", "!iconic", "CurrentDesk", "Visi-
ble", "!Visible", and "CurrentScreen". In addi-
tion, the condition may include a window name to
match to. The window name may include the wild-
cards * and ?. The window name, class, and
resource will be considered when attempting to find
a match.
Quit Exits fvwm95, generally causing X to exit too.
Raise Allows the user to raise a window.
RaiseLower
Alternately raises and lowers a window.
Read filename
Causes fvwm95 to read commands from the file named
filename.
Recapture
Causes fvwm95 to recapture all of its windows.
This ensures that the latest style parameters will
be used. The recapture operation is visually dis-
turbing.
Refresh
Causes all windows on the screen to redraw them-
selves.
Resize [ x y ]
Allows the user to resize a window.
If the optional arguments x and y are provided,
then the window will be resized so that its dimen-
sions are x by y). The units of x and y are per-
cent-of-screen, unless a letter "p" is appended to
each coordinate, in which case the location is
Causes fvwm95 to restart itself if WindowManager-
Name is "fvwm95", or to switch to an alternate win-
dow manager if WindowManagerName is other than
"fvwm95". If the window manager is not in your
default search path, then you should use the full
path name for WindowManagerName.
This command should not have a trailing ampersand
or any command line arguments and should not make
use of any environmental variables. Of the follow-
ing examples, the first two 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 /home/nation/bin/fvwm
SendToModule modulename string
Sends an arbitrary string (no quotes required) to
all modules matching modulename, which may contain
wildcards. This only makes sense +if the module is
set up to understand and deal with these strings
though... Can be used for module to module commu-
nication, or implementation of more complex com-
mands in modules.
Scroll horizonal vertical
Scrolls the virtual desktop's viewport by horizon-
tal pages in the x-direction and vertical pages in
the y-direction. Either or both entries may be
negative. Both horizontal and vertical values are
expressed in percent of pages, so "Scroll 100 100"
means to scroll down and left by one full page.
"Scroll 50 25" means to scroll left half a page and
down a quarter of a page. The scroll function
should not be called from pop-up menus. Normally,
scrolling stops at the edge of the desktop.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are mul-
tiplied by 1000 then scrolling will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop. If "Scroll 100000 0" is
executed over and over fvwm95 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
Stick Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky,
or non-sticky if it is already sticky.
StickyColors textcolor backgroundcolor
Specified the text and background colors for the
title bar of sticky windows.
Style windowname options
This command is intended to replace the old fvwm
1.xx global commands NoBorder, NoTitle, StartsOn-
Desk, Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip,
CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth,
NoBoundaryWidth, StdForeColor, and StdBackColor
with a single flexible and comprehensive window(s)
specific command. This command is used to set
attributes of a window to values other than the
default or to set the window manager default
styles.
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 file-
name manner. They are searched in the reverse
order stated, so that Style commands based on the
name override or augment those based on the class,
which override or augment those based on the
resource string.
Note - windows that have no name (WM_NAME) are
given a name of "Untitled", and windows that don't
have a class (WM_CLASS, res_class) are given Class
= "NoClass" and those that don't have a resource
(WM_CLASS, res_name) are given Resource = "NoRe-
source".
options is a comma separated list containing some
or all of the keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth,
NoIcon/Icon, TitleIcon, IconBox, NoTitle/Title,
NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit,
CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut,
Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Fore-
Color, BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere,
IconTitle/NoIconTitle, MWMDecor/NoDecorHint, MWM-
Functions/NoFuncHint, HintOverride/NoOverride,
NoButton/Button, OLDecor/NoOLDecor, StickyI-
sient/NakedTransient, SkipMapping/ShowMapping,
UseStyle, NoPPosition/UsePPosition, Lenience/NoLe-
nience, MouseFocus|FocusFollowsMouse/SloppyFo-
cus/ClickToFocus.
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
fvwm95 default behavior and can be used if you want
to change the fvwm95 default behavior.
Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument
which is the icon bitmap or pixmap to use.
IconBox takes four numeric arguments:
IconBox l t r b
Where l is the left coordinate, t is the top, r is
right and b is bottom. Negative coordinates indi-
cate distance from the right or bottom of the
screen. The iconbox is a region of the screen will
fvwm will attempt to put icons for this window, as
long as they do not overlap other icons.
StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the
desktop number on which the window should be ini-
tially placed. Note that standard Xt programs can
also specify this via a resource (eg "-xrm '*Desk:
1'").
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.
StickyIcon makes the window sticky when its iconi-
fied. It will deiconify on top the active desktop.
MWMDecor makes fvwm95 attempt to recognize and
respect the mwm decoration hints that applications
occasionally use.
MWMFunctions makes fvwm95 attempt to recognize and
respect the mwm prohibited operations hints that
but it lets you perform the operation anyway.
OLDecor makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect
the olwm and olvwm hints that many older XView and
OLIT applications use.
UseStyle takes one arg, which is the name of
another style. That way you can have unrelated
window names easily inherit similiar traits without
retyping. For example: 'Style "rxvt" UseStyle
"XTerm"'.
SkipMapping tells fvwm95 not to switch to the desk
the window is on when it gets mapped initially
(useful with StartsOnDesk).
Lenience instructs fvwm95 to ignore the convention
in the ICCCM which states that if an application
sets the input field of the wm_hints structure to
False, then it never wants the window manager to
give it the input focus. The only application that
I know of which needs this is sxpm, and that is a
silly bug with a trivial fix and has no overall
effect on the program anyway. Rumor is that some
older applications have problems too.
ClickToFocus instructs fvwm95 to give the focus to
the window when it is clicked in. MouseFocus (or
its alias FocusFollowsMouse) tells fvwm95 to give
the window the focus as soon as the pointer enters
the window, and take it away when the pointer
leaves the window. SloppyFocus is similiar, but
doesn't give up the focus if the pointer leaves the
window to pass over the root window or a ClickToFo-
cus window (unless you click on it, that is), which
makes it possible to move the mouse out of the way
without losing focus.
NoPPosition instructs fvwm95 to ignore the PPosi-
tion field when adding new windows. Adherence to
the PPosition field is required for some applica-
tions, but if you don't have one of those its a
real headache.
RandomPlacement causes windows which would normally
require user placement to be automatically placed
in ever-so-slightly random locations. For the best
of all possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and
SmartPlacement.
SmartPlacement causes windows which would normally
require user placement to be automatically placed
such position can be found user placement or random
placement (if specified) will be used as a fall-
back method. For the best of all possible worlds
use both RandomPlacement and SmartPlacement.
An example:
# Change default fvwm95 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 "FvwmButtons" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip
Style "sxpm" NoHandles
Style "makerkit"
# Put title-bars back on xterms only!
Style "xterm" Title
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 "FvwmButtons" 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 Win-
dowListSkip by a match to "Fvwm*". It will get
NoTitle by virtue of a match to "*". If conflict-
ing 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 speci-
fied. An example which allows only the FvwmPager
Style "*" NoIcon
Style "Fvwm Pager" Icon
Title Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line
in a popup or menu.
WarpToWindow x y
Warps the cursor to the associated window. The
parameters x and y default to percentage of window
down and in from the upper left hand corner (or
number of pixels down and in if 'p' is appended to
the numbers).
Wait name
This built-in is intended to be used in fvwm95
functions only. It causes execution of a function
to pause until a new window name name appears.
Fvwm95 remains fully functional during a wait.
This is particularly useful in the InitFunction if
you are trying to start windows on specific desk-
tops:
AddToFunc InitFunction "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
+ "I" Wait xterm
+ "I" Desk 0 2
+ "I" Exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0
+ "I" Wait xmh
+ "I" Desk 0 0
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.
WindowList options
Generates a pop-up menu (and pops it up) in which
the title and (optionally) the geometry of each of
the windows currently on the desk top are shown.
The geometry of iconified windows is shown in
brackets. Selecting an item from the window list
pop-up menu will cause that window to be moved onto
the desktop if it is currently not on it, will move
iconify the window if it is iconified, and will
raise the window. The WindowList command can take
an optional argument list of one or more of the
following options, separated by spaces:
ShowAllDesks - All windows on all desktops (except
those listed in WindowSkipList directives) will be
shown. This is the default.
ShowCurrentDesk - Only windows on the current desk-
top will be shown.
ShowDesk n - Only windows on desktop number n will
be shown.
ShowGeometry - When specified, the geometry of each
window will be added to the list. This option is
off by default.
UseWindowNames - The windows are listed using the
window (titlebar) name. This is the default
UseIconNames - The window's icon names is used
instead of the title name.
WindowFont fontname
Makes fvwm95 use font fontname instead of "fixed"
for window title-bars.
WindowsDesk new_desk
Moves the selected window the the desktop specified
as new_desk.
XORvalue number
Changes the value with which bits are XOR'ed when
doing rubber-band window moving or resizing. Set-
ting this value is a trial-and-error process.
+ Used to continue adding to the last specified func-
tion or menu. See the discussion for AddToFunc and
AddToMenu.
All (I think) window manager operations can be performed
from the keyboard so mouseless operation should be possi-
ble. 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. Stan-
dard emacs and vi cursor movement controls (^n, ^p, ^f,
^b, and ^j, ^k, ^h, ^l) can be used instead of the arrow
keys.
SUPPLIED CONFIGURATION
A sample configuration file, .fvwm95rc, is supplied with
the fvwm95 distribution. It is well commented and can be
used as a source of examples for fvwm95 configuration.
USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS
If the -s command line argument is not given, fvwm95 will
automatically start up on every screen on the specified
display. After fvwm95 starts each screen is treated inde-
pendently. Restarts of fvwm95 need to be performed sepa-
rately 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.
BUGS
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 logi-
cal conclusion we will have an infinite number of uniden-
tified bugs before the number of bugs can start to dimin-
ish, 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....
tion, and in the TO-DO list.
AUTHOR
Robert Nation with help from many people, based on twm
code, which was written by Tom LaStrange. Rob has since
'retired' from working on fvwm though, so Charles Hines
maintains it's care and feeding currently.
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