\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- @c %**start of header @setfilename ratpoison.info @settitle ratpoison manual @setchapternewpage odd @c %**end of header @dircategory X11 @direntry * ratpoison: (ratpoison). Say good-bye to the rodent @end direntry @ifinfo This is the ratpoison user manual. Copyright @copyright{} 2000, 2001 Shawn Betts Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. @ignore Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual). @end ignore Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled ``Copying'' and ``GNU General Public License'' are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation. @end ifinfo @titlepage @sp 10 @titlefont{ratpoison} @author Shawn Betts @page @vskip 0pt plus 1filll Copyright @copyright{} 2000, 2001 Shawn Betts Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled ``Copying'' and ``GNU General Public License'' are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation. @end titlepage @node Top, About, (dir), (dir) @ifinfo This document explains how to use ratpoison. @end ifinfo @menu * About:: What is ratpoison? * Contacting:: How do I contact the ratpoison developers? * Concepts:: Window manipulation concepts * General Use:: How does this thing work?? * Splitting Frames:: When you want to see more than one window * Multiple Monitors:: What to do with all your computer junk * Keystrokes:: Key commands and functionality * Commands:: ratpoison commands * Input:: Typing text into ratpoison * Command Line Arguments:: ratpoison command-line actions * Startup file:: They threatened me...with violence! @end menu @node About, Contacting, Top, Top @chapter About ratpoison is a simple Window Manager with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence. It is largely modeled after GNU Screen which has done wonders in the virtual terminal market. All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize the key clobbering that cripples EMACS and other quality pieces of software. ratpoison was written by Shawn Betts (@email{sabetts@@users.sourceforge.net}). @node Contacting, Concepts, About, Top @chapter Contacting ratpoison is hosted on @url{sourceforge.net}. To see the latest developments in ratpoison go to @url{http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ratpoison} or visit the ratpoison webpage at @url{http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net}. There is also a ratpoison mailing list: @email{ratpoison-devel@@lists.sourceforge.net}. For details on subscribing and for the list archives go to the ratpoison sourceforge.net project. There is a #ratpoison irc channel on irc.openprojects.net. @node Concepts, General Use, Contacting, Top @chapter Concepts ratpoison uses the concept of @dfn{panes} to place and size windows. Instead of allowing windows to have arbitary shapes at arbitary locations on the screen, the display is divided into panes, the same way a physical window might contain several pieces of glass seperated by wood. In ratpoison, the panes are called @dfn{frames}, and windows are placed in them, maximised. ratpoison starts with one frame, which can be split into an arbitary number of smaller ones. Each frame can be split in half either horizontally or vertically. You can move among them, making different ones the current. For more information, see @ref{Splitting Frames}. Each frame has at most one window associated with it, which is visible in that frame. If you select a window that is associated with a frame, the focus will move to its associated frame, rather than moving the window to the current frame. If you select a window that is not associated with a frame, that window will be opened in the current frame and resized to fit that frame. If the window associated with a frame does not fill the frame completely, the various gravity commands control how it is placed. If no window was open in that frame before the current window was opened, the X root will be visible behind it. Transient windows (dialog boxes, splash screens, and the like) are handled specially. In order to understand the contents of a transient window, the previously focused window is often required. Take a search window, it is useful to be able to see the document you are searching as well as the search window. For this reason transient windows appear overtop (according to their gravity) of the previously focused window. @node General Use, Splitting Frames, Concepts, Top @chapter General Use When ratpoison starts you should see an empty X server. To open an x terminal hit @kbd{C-t c}. You can now run shell commands as you would on any terminal. Notice the terminal maximized full screen. @kbd{C-t !} will run a single shell command and saves you the effort of opening a terminal. Once you have a couple X programs running, you'll want to navigate between windows. To see what windows are being managed hit @kbd{C-t w}. Each window has a number. You can jump to a window by hitting @kbd{C-t} followed by the window's number. This assumes the the window's number is one digit. You can also switch to a window by typing in part of its name. To do this hit @kbd{C-t '}. ratpoison allows you to cycle through the windows with @kbd{C-t n} and @kbd{C-t p}. And That concludes a brief introduction on how to use ratpoison. Notice how we didn't have to drag a single window, or click a single maximize button? Beautiful wasn't it? Felt fast? Cool? It's modern computing at its best. @node Splitting Frames, Multiple Monitors, General Use, Top @chapter Splitting Frames Sometimes you may want to see two or more windows at the same time. ratpoison allows you to split the display into frames (see @ref{Concepts}). Each frame can then contain 1 window. To split the current frame horizontally use @kbd{C-t s}. To split the current frame vertically use @kbd{C-t S}. If you have enough windows, you'll notice that the new frame will find a window for itself. You can now use the normal navigation commands to switch windows in the frame. Note, however, that if you switch by name or number to a window that is already in another frame, you'll switch to that frame. Before too long, you'll probably want to switch to another frame. Use @kbd{C-t tab} to cycle through the frames. If you want to remove a frame use @kbd{C-t R}. ratpoison automatically adjusts the size of the other frames to take up the free space. Unfortunately ratpoison may not always fill it in the way you might like it to. Finally, when you've had enough of the splitting and you just want good ol' full screen ratpoison press @kbd{C-t Q} to remove all splits and leave you with the current window full screen. @node Multiple Monitors, Keystrokes, Splitting Frames, Top @chapter Multiple Monitors When you've finally accumulated enough computer junk, you'll find youself attaching a second monitor to your computer. ratpoison has functionality to help you get around your new and improved desktop space. The X Windowing System assigns each monitor a screen number. To switch to another screen use the commands @command{nextscreen} and @command{prevscreen}. ratpoison will tell you which frame has focus by drawing the current frame indicator in it. Many commands operate only on the current screen. This becomes apparent when you have 2 screens each with 1 frame. In each frame you have an xterm. If you try to switch to the other xterm with the command @command{other}, for instance, you'll get a message ``No other window.'' ratpoison means there's no other window to switch to in the current screen. If you want to switch to the other xterm you can switch to it by name (use @command{select} or @kbd{C-t '}), by number, or you can use @command{nextscreen} and @command{prevscreen}. @node Keystrokes, Commands, Multiple Monitors, Top @chapter Keystrokes ratpoison is a very simple window manager. Each window is maximized and has no border decorations. The default keystrokes are listed in this chapter. Not all commands are accessible by default by keys. A full list of ratpoison commands is in the next section. @table @kbd @item C-t C-t Switch to the last window. @item C-t t Sometimes you need to send a C-t to the current window. This keystroke does just that. @item C-t 0-9 Switch to the numbered window. @item C-t - Select no window, essentially hiding all windows in the current frame. @item C-t A @item C-t C-A Rename the current window. The window's new name will prevail for the rest of its lifetime. @item C-t K @item C-t C-K Send a DestroyClient event to the current window. This will terminate the application without question. @item C-t n @item C-t C-n @item C-t Return @item C-t C-Return @item C-t Space @item C-t C-Space Go to next window. @item C-t p @item C-t C-p Go to previous window. @item C-t ' @item C-t C-' Go to a window by name. You will usually only need to type the first few characters of the window name. @item C-t a @item C-t C-a Display the current time of day. @item C-t c @item C-t C-c Open a new X terminal. @item C-t : This allows you to execute a single ratpoison command. @item C-t ! Run a shell command. @item C-t C-! Run a shell command through an X terminal. @item C-t i @item C-t C-i Display information about the current window. @item C-t k @item C-t C-k Close the current window. @item C-t l @item C-t C-l Redisplay the current window. Sometimes windows don't respond correctly to the initial maximize event and need some coaxing. This is a fancy way of saying there are still bugs in ratpoison. @kbd{C-t l} will force the current window to maximize. @item C-t m @item C-t C-m Display the last message. @item C-t v @item C-t C-v Display the version of ratpoison. @item C-t w @item C-t C-w Display the list of managed windows. The current window is highlighted. @item C-t s Split the current window horizontally in two. The last accessed window not occupying a frame will be the second window. @item C-t S Split the current window vertically in two. The last accessed window not occupying a frame will be the second window. @item C-t tab Cycle through ratpoison's frames. @item C-t M-tab Switch to the last focused frame. @item C-t Q Kill all frames but the current one. @item C-t R Kill the current frame. This is a no-op if there is only one frame. @item C-t b @item C-t C-b Banish the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen. @item C-t ? Display a help screen @item C-t f @item C-t C-f Indicate which frame is the current frame. @end table @node Commands, Input, Keystrokes, Top @chapter Commands ratpoison can be controlled with commands (so called colon-commands). The summary of available commands is listed below: @table @command @item abort This is a pretty useless command. By default, it is bound to @kbd{C-t g}, and its purpose is to abort other commands. @item alias @var{name} @var{command} An allows you to name a ratpoison command something else. For instance, if you frequently open emacs you may want to make an alias called @samp{emacs} that loads emacs. You would do it like this: @example : alias emacs exec emacs @end example An alias is treated exactly like a colon command in that you can call it from the colon prompt, bind it to a key, and call it non-interactively with @command{ratpoison -c}. @item banish Banish the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen. @item bind @var{Key} @var{command} Bind a key to a ratpoison command. This command takes two arguments: the key to bind and the command to run. For example, to bind @kbd{C-t R} to restart ratpoison: @example : bind R restart @end example If no command is specified then bind works exactly like @command{unbind}, unbinding the key. @item chdir Change the current directory for ratpoison. @item clock Show current time. Disappears after 5 seconds, like all other info bars. In the default setup, the @kbd{C-t a} keystroke is bound to this command. @item colon @var{command} Run a ratpoison command. @item curframe Indicate which frame is the current frame. @item defbargravity @var{g} Set the default alignment for the message bar. See the @command{gravity} command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defbarpadding @var{x} @var{y} Set the horizontal and vertical padding inside the bar. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defbarborder @var{n} Set the border width for the bar window. @item defbgcolor @var{color} Set the background color for all text ratpoison displays. @var{color} is any valid X11 color. @item defborder @var{n} Set the border width for all windows. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item deffgcolor @var{color} Set the foreground color for all text ratpoison displays. @var{color} is any valid X11 color. @item deffont @var{font} Set the font. @var{font} is a font string like @samp{9x15bold}. @item definputwidth @var{n} Set the width of the input window. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defmaxsizegravity @var{g} Set the default alignment for windows with maxsize hints. See the @command{gravity} command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defpadding @var{left} @var{top} @var{right} @var{bottom} Set the padding around the edge of the screen. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item deftransgravity @var{g} Set the default alignment for transient windows. See the @command{gravity} command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defwaitcursor @var{n} Set whether the rat cursor should change into a square when waiting for a key. A non-zero number means change the cursor. Zero means don't change the cursor. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defwinfmt @var{fmt} Set the default window format for the @command{windows} command. By default it is @samp{N-W}. The following is a list of valid format characters: @table @samp @item %n The window number @item %s Window status (current window, last window, etc) @item %t Window Name @item %a Application Name @item %c Resource Class @item %i X11 Window ID @item %l A unique number based on when the window was last accessed. The higher the number, the more recently it was accessed. @end table When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defwinname @var{name} There are three resources ratpoison can get a window's name from: the WMNAME hint, the res_name from the WMCLASS hint, or the res_class from the WMCLASS hint. @var{name} can be @samp{title} which is what most window managers put in the title bar, @samp{name} which is the res_name, or @samp{class} which is the res_class. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item defwingravity @var{g} Set the default gravity for normal windows. See the @command{gravity} command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item delete This deletes the current window. You can access it with the @kbd{C-t k} keystroke. @item echo @var{text} Display @var{text} as a message. @item escape @var{key} Set the prefix to to @var{key}. For example @samp{escape C-b} sets the prefix key to @key{C-b}. @item exec @var{command} Execute a shell command. By default, @kbd{C-t !} does this. @item focus cycle through ratpoison's frames. @item focuslast Switch to the last focused frame. @item focusup Move to the frame above the current frame. @item focusdown Move to the frame below the current frame. @item focusleft Move to the frame left of the current frame. @item focusright Move to the frame right of the current frame. @item gravity @var{g} Change the gravity of the current window. A normal window will default to the top-left corner of the screen, but it can also be placed at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Valid values for @var{g} are the 8 directions @samp{northwest}, @samp{north}, @samp{northeast}, @samp{east}, @samp{southeast}, @samp{south}, @samp{southwest} and @samp{west}, clockwise from the top left corner. @samp{center} will center the window in the frame. @var{g} and can be abbreviated to the standard compass 1 and 2 letter abbreviations (i.e. @samp{nw}, @samp{s}, etc). @item help Display a help screen that lists all bound keystrokes. @item info Display information about the current window. @item kill This destroys the current window. Normally you should only need to use @command{delete}, but just in case you need to rip the heart out of a misbehaving window this command should do the trick. Also available as @kbd{C-t K}. @item lastmsg Display the last message. @item link @var{key} Call the command that @var{key} is bound to. For instance @command{link C-t} would call the command @command{other} and switch to the last window. @item meta Send a @kbd{C-t} to the current window. @item msgwait @var{n} Set the bar's timeout in seconds. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned. @item next This jumps you to the next window in the window list. This one is bound to three keystrokes, namely @kbd{C-t n}, @kbd{C-t space}, and @kbd{C-t enter}. @item nextscreen This jumps you to the next X11 screen. @command{nextscreen} is used for dual-head displays and multiple monitor setups. @item newwm @var{window-manager} This is a bad-bad command. It kills ratpoison and revives that ugly rodent! Yuck! Avoid! @item number @var{n} @var{target} Set a window's number to @var{n}. If another window occupies the requested number already, then the windows' numbers are swapped. The second argument, @var{target}, is optional. It should be the number of the window whose number will be changed. If @var{target} is omitted ratpoison defaults to the current window. @item only Kill all frames but the current one. @item other This toggles between the current window and the last window. By default, this is bound to @kbd{C-t C-t}. @item prev This jumps you to the previous window in the window list. By default, this is bound to @kbd{C-t p}. @item prevscreen This jumps you to the previous X11 screen. @command{prevscreen} is used for dual-head displays and multiple monitor setups. @item quit Quit ratpoison. @item redisplay Redisplay the current window, just like @kbd{C-t l} would do. @item remove Kill the current frame. This is a no-op if there is only one frame. @item restart Restart ratpoison. @item rudeness @var{n} The rudeness command let's you decide what windows pop-up automatically and when. This is often useful for those deep hack sessions when you absolutely can't be disturbed. There are two kinds of windows: normal windows (like an xterm) and transient windows (generally pop-up dialog boxes). When a client program wants to display a new window it makes a requests to ratpoison. ratpoison then decides whether to grant the request and display the window or ignore it. A client program can also request that one of its windows be raised. You can customize ratpoison to either honour these requests (the default operation) or ignore them. @var{n} is a number from 0 to 15. Each of the four bits determine which requests ratpoison grants. @table @asis @item Bit 0 Tells ratpoison to grant raise requests on transient windows @item Bit 1 Tells ratpoison to grant raise requests on normal windows @item Bit 2 Tells ratpoison to grant display requests on new transient windows @item Bit 3 Tells ratpoison to grant display requests on new normal windows @end table For example, if you wanted only wanted to grant transient windows raise requests and display requests you would type @samp{rudeness 5}. If a request is not granted ratpoison will tell you about the request with a message like @samp{Raise request from window 1 (emacs)}. @item select @var{n} This jumps you to window @var{n} where @var{n} is the window number as shown in the Program Bar. You can do the same trick with @command{C-@var{n}} too. To select no window, blanking the current frame, type @samp{select -}. @item select @var{window-name} Go to a window by name. A shortcut is @kbd{C-t '}. @item setenv @var{env} @var{value} Set the environment variable @var{env} to @var{value} @item source @var{file} Read a text file containing ratpoison commands. @item split @item hsplit Split the current window horizontally in two. The last accessed window not occupying a frame will be the second window. @item startup_message @var{state} Turn on or off the startup_message. This is most useful in your .ratpoisonrc file. @var{state} can be @code{on} or @code{off}. @item title @var{title} Rename the currently active window. This name will remain for the duration of the window's life, unless you change it again. By default, the @kbd{C-t A} keystroke is bound to this command. @item unbind @var{key} Unbind a keystroke. @item unsetenv @var{env} Clear the value of the environment variable, @var{env}. @item version Print ratpoison version. By default, this is bound to @kbd{C-t v}. @item vsplit Split the current window vertically in two. The last accessed window not occupying a frame will be the second window. @item windows @var{fmt} This displays the Program Bar which displays the windows you currently have running. The number before each window name is used to jump to that window. You can do this by typing @kbd{C-t @var{n}} where @var{n} is the number of the window. Note that only windows with numbers from 0 to 9 can be referenced using this keystroke. To reach windows with numbers greater than 9, use @kbd{C-t '} and type the number at the prompt. After 5 seconds the Program Bar disappears. This command is bound to @kbd{C-t w} by default. When invoked from the command-line like this, @example $ ratpoison -c windows @end example Instead of a message bar, you will get a list of the windows printed to stdout. This allows you to write more advanced scripts than simple keyboard macros. This is where @var{fmt} comes into play. If @command{windows} is given an arg it treats it as the format string as described in @command{defwinfmt}. @end table @node Input, Command Line Arguments, Commands, Top @chapter Input At various times ratpoison will prompt you for input. Currently only very basic text editing commands exist. @table @key @item Backspace Deletes one letter preceding the cursor. @item C-p Cycle backwards through the history. @item C-n Cycle forwards through the history. @end table All input is stored in the same history list. By default ratpoison has a history length of 50 entries. @node Command Line Arguments, Startup file, Input, Top @chapter Command Line Arguments ratpoison supports command line arguments to request various actions when invoking ratpoison. @table @code @item -h, --help Display this help screen @item -v, --version Display the version @item -c, --command Send ratpoison a colon-command. This allows you to control ratpoison from the command-line. with the @option{-c} option you can script ratpoison using any programming language that can spawn a process. Some commands behave differently when invoked this way. Currently the only commands that behaves differently are the @code{windows} command and some def* commands. Instead of displaying the window list in a message window, it is printed to stdout. The output can then be captured and used in the ratpoison script. For instance, this could be used to check whether a program is running and if it is switch to its window otherwise launch it. It should also be noted that multiple @option{-c} options can be used. @example $ ratpoison -c split -c split @end example Here ratpoison would split the current frame twice. @end table @node Startup file, , Command Line Arguments, Top @chapter Startup file Now you've probably read the web page, and you've no doubt dug up some old file I forgot about. You're probably wondering, ``say, didn't he say there was no configuration file to customize?''. Okay, ya got me. But let's be honest here: ratpoison is so pure and fast-acting, customization is barely worth the extra effort. In the off chance that you need to make ratpoison your own, we now support it. On startup ratpoison looks for @file{~/.ratpoisonrc} and runs it through the command parser. If @file{~/.ratpoisonrc} does not exist, ratpoison tries @file{/etc/ratpoisonrc}. This means any command you can bind a key to or run at the command prompt (@kbd{C-t :}) you can execute in this rc file. @bye