HERBSTLUFTWM-TUTORI(7)HERBSTLUFTWM-TUTORI(7)NAMEherbstluftwm-tutorial - A tutorial introduction to herbstluftwm
DESCRIPTION
This tutorial explains how to create a basic herbstluftwm setup and
introduces the major herbstluftwm features. This tutorial neither
covers all features nor specifies the mentioned features entirely; see
herbstluftwm(1) for a compact and more complete description.
This tutorial covers these topics:
· Basic installation
· Usage of the client
· The tiling method
· Tags (or workspaces...)
· Multi-Monitor handling
BASIC INSTALLATION
This describes two alternate installation methods. In any case, you
also have to install the dependencies. Beside the standard libraries
(GLib, XLib) which are found on nearly any system, you should install
dzen2 (as current as possible) which is needed by the default panel.sh.
Via the package manager
You always should prefer installing herbstluftwm via your package
manager on your system. It should be called herbstluftwm.
After installing it, the default configuration file has to be copied to
your home directory:
mkdir -p ~/.config/herbstluftwm
cp /etc/xdg/herbstluftwm/autostart ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
You also should activate the tab completion for herbstclient. In case
of bash, you can either activate the tab completion in general or
source the herbstclient-completion from the bash_completion.d directory
in your bashrc. In case of zsh the tab-completion normally is activated
already (if not, consider activating it).
Directly from git
If there is no package for your platform or if you want to use the
current git version, then you can pull directly from the main
repository:
git clone git://git.cs.fau.de/hlwm herbstluftwm
cd herbstluftwm
make # build the binaries
# install files
mkdir -p ~/bin
# you also have to put $HOME/bin to your path, e.g. by:
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin' >> ~/.bashrc # or to your zshrc, etc...
ln -s `pwd`/herbstluftwm ~/bin/
ln -s `pwd`/herbstclient ~/bin/
# copy the configuration
mkdir -p ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
cp share/autostart ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
cp share/panel.sh ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
· If you are using bash, then source the bash completion file in your
~/.bashrc
source path-to/herbstluftwm/share/herbstclient-completion
· If you are using zsh, then copy the share/_herbstclient file to the
appropriate zsh-completion directory.
Each time there is an update, you have to do the following steps in
your herbstluftwm directory:
git pull
make
CONFIGURE HERBSTLUFTWM AS YOUR WINDOW MANAGER
As usual you can define herbstluftwm as your window manager by either
selecting herbstluftwm in your login manager or by starting it in your
~/.xinitrc, mostly by writing to your xinitrc (or .xsession on some
systems):
# start herbstluftwm in locked mode (it will be unlocked at the end of your
# autostart)
exec herbstluftwm --locked
After logging in the next time, you will get a default herbstluftwm
session.
FIRST START
After starting herbstluftwm, the screen is surrounded by a green frame
initially, which indicates that there is only one large frame. A frame
is a container where actual windows can be placed or which can be split
into two frames.
Start an xterm by pressing Alt-Return, which will fill your entire
screen.
USING THE CLIENT
The only way to communicate to herbstluftwm is by using the client
application called herbstclient. Its usual syntax is: herbstclient
COMMAND [ARGUMENTS]. This calls a certain COMMAND within your running
herbstluftwm instance. This causes some effect (which depends on the
given COMMAND and ARGUMENTS), produces some output which is printed by
herbstclient and lets herbstclient exit with a exit-code (e.g. 0 for
success) like many other UNIX tools:
shell COMMANDS,
╲ COMMAND, ARGUMENTS
╲ ARGUMENTS ╭────────────╮
╲ │ │
V │ V
herbstclient herbstluftwm
╱ ^ │
╱ output, │ │
╱ exit-code ╰────────────╯
V output,
shell/terminal exit-code
The most simple command only prints the herbstluftwm version:
$ # lines prefixed with $ describes what to type, other lines describe the
$ # typical output
$ # Type: her<tab>c<tab> ve<tab>
$ herbstclient version
herbstluftwm 0.4.1 (built on Aug 30 2012)
$ herbstclient set window_border_active_color red
$ # now the window border turned red
The configuration of herbstluftwm only is done by calling commands via
herbstclient. So the only configuration file is the autostart which is
placed at ~/.config/herbstluftwm/ and which is a sequence of those
herbstclient calls.
Open it in your favourite text editor and replace the Mod-line by this
to use the Super-key (or also called Windows-key) as the main modifier:
# Mod=Mod1 # use alt as the main modifier
Mod=Mod4 # use Super as the main modifier
After saving the autostart file, you have to reload the configuration:
# the following line is identical to directly calling:
# ~/.config/herbstluftwm/autostart
herbstclient reload
Now you may notice that the red border color of your terminal turned
green again, because the color is set in the default autostart. That’s
the typical configuration workflow:
1. Try some new settings in the command line
2. Add them to the autostart file
3. Press Mod-Shift-r which calls the reload command or directly
execute the autostart file from your shell to get the error
messages if something went wrong.
To learn more about herbstluftwm, just go through the man page line by
line and check using the herbstluftwm(1) man page what it does. For a
quick introduction to the central paradigms, continue reading this.
TILING
Initially there is one frame. Each frame has one of the two following
possible types:
1. It serves as a container for windows, i.e. it can hold zero up to
arbitrarily many windows. Launch several more terminals to see what
happens: If there are multiple windows in one frame, they are
aligned below each other. To change this layout algorithm, press
Mod-space to cycle all the available layouting algorithms for the
focused frame.
2. A frame also can be split into two subframes, which can be aligned
next to or below each other. Press Mod-o to split to an horizontal
alignment. To navigate to the fresh frame right of the old one
press Mod-l. Press Mod-u to split vertically. The intuitive
navigation is:
╭ h (or ←) ╮ ╭ left
⎪ j (or ↓) ⎪ means ⎪ down
Mod + ┥ k (or ↑) ┝ ═══════> focus ┥ up
╰ l (or →) ╯ ╰ right
To undo splitting, you can remove a frame via Mod-r. To shift some
window from one frame to one of its neighbours, use the same
keyboard shortcut while holding the Shift key pressed. It is not
possible to resize single windows, only to resize frames. The
according keyboard shortcut is the same while holding Control
pressed. All in all it is:
╭ h (or ←) ╮ ╭ left
╭ ╮ ⎪ j (or ↓) ⎪ means ╭ focus frame ╮ ⎪ down
Mod + ┥ Shift ┝ + ┥ k (or ↑) ┝ ═════> ┥ move window ┝ ┥ up
╰ Control ╯ ╰ l (or →) ╯ ╰ resize frame ╯ ╰ right
With this, you can define a custom layout. It can be printed via the
layout command:
$ herbstclient layout
╾─┐ horizontal 50% selection=1
├─┐ vertical 70% selection=0
│ ├─╼ vertical: 0x1400009
│ └─╼ vertical:
└─╼ max: 0x1a00009 [FOCUS]
Just play with it a bit to how it works. You also can permanently save
the layout using the dump command:
$ herbstclient dump
(split horizontal:0.500000:1
(split vertical:0.700000:0
(clients vertical:0 0x1400009)
(clients vertical:0))
(clients max:0 0x1a00009))
$ layout=$(herbstclient dump)
And after some changes you can rewind to the original layout with the
load command:
$ herbstclient load "$layout" # mind the quotes!
TAGS (OR WORKSPACES OR VIRTUAL DESKTOPS OR ....)
A tag consists of a name and a frame layout with clients on it. With
the default autostart, there are nine tags named 1 to 9. You can switch
to the ith tag using Mod-i, e.g. Mod-4 to switch to tag 4 or with the
command use 4. A window can be move to tag i via Mod-Shift-i, i.e. with
the move command.
MONITORS
The notion of a monitor in herbstluftwm is treated much more abstract
and general than in other window managers: A monitor just is a
rectangular part of your screen which shows exactly one tag on it.
Initially there is only one large monitor ranging over your entire
screen:
$ herbstclient list_monitors
0: 1440x900+0+0 with tag "1" [FOCUS]
The output shows that there is only one monitor with index 0 at
position +0+0 of size 1440x900 showing tag 1. In most cases, the
herbstluftwm monitors will match the list of physical monitors. So to
add another physical monitor, you have to perform several steps:
1. Enable it, such that it shows a part of your screen. You can use
xrandr, xinerama or any other tool you like.
2. Register it in herbstluftwm: Lets assume your new monitor has the
resolution 1024x768 and is right of your main screen, then you can
activate it via:
$ herbstclient set_monitors 1440x900+0+0 1024x768+1440+0
Alternatively, if xinerama works for your setup, simply run:
$ herbstclient detect_monitors
For even more automation, you can enable the setting
auto_detect_monitors. For more advanced examples, look at the
q3terminal.sh example script, which implements a drop-down-terminal
like monitor where you can put any application you like.
herbstluftwm 0.6.2\ 2014-03-27 HERBSTLUFTWM-TUTORI(7)
