ratpoison - window manager without mouse dependency

ratpoison --help | --version

ratpoison [-d dpy] [-s num] [-f file]

ratpoison [-d dpy] [-s num] [-i] -c command [-c command ... ]

Ratpoison is a Window Manager without fat library dependencies, fancy graphics or rat dependence.

The screen can be split into non-overlapping frames. All windows are kept maximized inside their frames.

All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize key clobbering.

-h, --help

Show summary of options.

-v, --version

Show version of program.

-d, --display display

Set the X display to use or send commands to.

-s, --screen number

Only use the specified screen.

-f, --file filename

Specify an alternate configuration file. If this is not given, ratpoison will try $HOME/.ratpoisonrc and if that does not exist /etc/ratpoisonrc and execute each command when starting up.

-i, --interactive

Execute commands given with -c or --command in interactive mode. That means it will behave exactly as if called with C-t : like prompting for missing arguments and things like that.

-c, --command

Send ratpoison a command. There must be a ratpoison instance running as window manager for the given display/screen for this to work. Do not forget to quote the command if it contains spaces.

To avoid conflicts with other programs, all default ratpoison key bindings start with an escape key, per default C-t (read Control-t). Some important default key bindings:

C-t q Quit ratpoison

C-t ? Show key bindings

C-t c Start an X terminal

C-t n Switch to next window

C-t p Switch to previous window

C-t 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9 Switch to window number 1|2|...

C-t k Close the current window

C-t K XKill the current application

C-t s|S Split the current frame into two vertical|horizontal ones

C-t Tab|Left|Up|Right|Down Switch to the next|left|top|right|bottom frame.

C-t Q Make the current frame the only one

C-t : Execute a ratpoison command

Further default key bindings can be found in parentheses after the commands in the next section:

Do nothing and that successfully. (Useful if you pressed C-t in error). Add a hook: Run command command whenever event is called. Possible events are:

key Run whenever a top level key is pressed. (by default C-t)

quit Run before exiting ratpoison.

restart Run before restarting ratpoison.

switchframe Run after a frame actually switched, but before the window in it is focused.

switchgroup Run after selecting a new group.

switchwin Run after a new window is selected. (With dedication, it may already be inactive again, if it was put into another frame) Add alias as new way to call command. alias for "definekey root key command" Banish the rat cursor to the lower right corner of the screen. If the optional argument is given, change the current directory of ratpoison to directory. If nothing is given, change it to the value of the environment variable "HOME". Clears the unmanaged window list. Like next but switch to the next window with another resource class than the current one. (That means the next window belonging to another type of application than the current one.) Like prev but switch to the previous window with another resource class than the current one. (That means the previous window belonging to another type of application than the current one.) Execute ratpoison-command interactively. (i.e. ask for possible missing arguments.) Like other but switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed and has an other resource class but is not currently visible. Show a bar marking the current frame. Add a new key binding in keymap for key to execute command. Default keymaps are top normally only containing C-t, which reads a key from root, containing all the normal commands.

Note that you have to describe ":" by "colon", "!" by "exclam" and so on. If you cannot guess a name of a key, try either C-t key and look at the error message, or try :describekey root and pressing the key. There are still some aliases stating with "def" around, which alias the new form with set. I.e. instead of defresizeunit better use the new set resizeunit and so on... Consider the current frame dedicated/chaste (1) or promiscuous (0).

A dedicated frame will not accept new windows. When new windows are to be focused, they will be opened in a non-dedicated frame instead.

If no argument is given, toggle the current dedicateness. By default no windows are dedicated. Close the current window. Deletes the keymap named keymap, that was generated with newkmap. The keymaps top and root cannot be deleted. Grab the next key. Similar to readkey, describekey shows only the command in keymap, that would be executed by readkey. Show text as ratpoison message. Update the default escape key to key.

Strictly speaking it updates the the readkey root command in the keymap top to key, the other binding in root to key, and meta binding in root to key without modifiers or C-key if key has no modifiers. Spawn a shell executing shell-command. Output the defining data for all frames of the current screen, or for screen number screenno if this is specified. Focus the next frame. Switch to the last selected focus. Switch to the frame to the left of the current one. Switch to the frame beneath the current one. Switch to the frame to the right of the current one. Focus the previous frame. Switch to the frame above the current one. Replace the current frames with the ones specified in frames in the format as generated by fdump. If an argument is supplied, switch to a frame given by number frameno.

If no argument is given, show a frame selector in each frame and wait for a key to be pressed. If the key matches an existing frame selector, this frame gets focused.

Frame selectors are by default the numbers starting with zero, but they can be changed by seting framesels. If the optional argument group is supplied, delete group group. Otherwise delete the current group. If the last group is deleted, a new group with name default is created. The group has to be empty, otherwise it cannot be deleted. Output the value of the environment variable variable. Paste the current X Selection into the current window. Move all windows from group group into the current group. Move the current window into group group. Create a new group with name group and select it. Most window commands only see (and thus select, consider next, previous or last) windows within the group active when they are issued. Create a new group named groupf, but do not select it. Select the next group. Most window commands only see windows in the effective group. Select the prior group. Most window commands only see windows in the effective group. Change how in its frame the current window is aligned. Output a list of all groups with their number. Select the group names group. If the optional parameter keymap is given, list all keybindings in this keymap, otherwise list all key bindings in keymap root. Split the current frame into left frame and a right frame. If no parameter is given, split in halves. If two numbers separated by a slash ("/") are given, the left one is l times the pth part and the right one (p-l) times the pth part of the prior width. Otherwise the right one is pixels from right wide or the left one pixels from left wide, depending whether there is - in front of the number or not. Like next but switch to the next window with the same resource class as the current one. (That means the next window belonging to the same application as the current one.) Output the current the width, height, window number and window name of the current window. (What name means is chosen by "set winname".) Like prev but switch to the previous window with the same resource class as the current one. (That means the previous window belonging to the same application as the current one.) Like other but switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed and has the same resource class but is not currently visible. Close the X-connection of the X-client responsible for the current window. Reshow the last message. Show ratpoison's license. Do what key is bound to in the keymap keymap if supplied. Otherwise what key is bound to in keymap root. List all commands specified with addhook to be executed when even event occurs. Send the escape key (that which normally is C-t) to the current window. Set the duration the message window is shown. If seconds is zero, wait infinitely. Generate a new keymap names keymap. This keymap can be used to add new key-command mapping to it with definekey and can be called with readkey. Quit ratpoison and execute new window manager instead. Switch to the next window in the current group. Switch to the next screen. (If you have multiple physical ones.) Give the number new to the window with the number old or the current window. Remove all frames on the current screen except the current frame and maximise this one to the size of the whole screen. Switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed but is not currently visible. Switch to the previous window in the current group. Switch to the previous screen. (If you have multiple physical ones.) Ratpoison will ask the user for input, showing prompt (or a single colon, if no argument is given) and output the input the user has made.

Note that this command probably does not make much sense in interactive mode. Replace the X selection with the text x-selection. It can be inserted into the current window with getsel. Quit ratpoison. Move the rat cursor to the position (x,y). Move the rat cursor to (deltax,deltay), relative to the current position. Simulate a rat click with button (button 1=left button if none given). Simulate pressing|releasing rat button button (1=left button if none given). Grab the next key pressed, and execute the command associated to this key in keymap. To show it is waiting for a key, ratpoison will change the rat cursor to a square if waitcursor is set.

This command is perhaps best described with its usage in the default configuration: By pressing C-t, which is the only key in the keymap top, the command "readkey root" is executed. The next key then executes the command in keymap root belonging to this command. Redisplay the current window. Remove command command from the list of commands to be called when event event is hit. (The command has to specified, as an event can have multiple commands attached to it.) Use "listhook hook" to get a list of all attached commands. Remove the current frame and extend some frames around to fill the remaining gap. If deltax and deltay are supplied, resize the current frame by that (i.e. move the bottom right corner by the given offsets and then move this frame and resize adjacent frames to make the frames fill the whole screen again.)

If in interactive mode no arguments are supplied, resize the current frame interactively:

Return: finish resizing

C-g or Escape: abort resizing

C-n or Down or j: grow vertically

C-p or Up or k: shrink vertically

C-f or Right or l: grow horizontally

C-b or Up or h: shrink horizontally

s: shrink to size of current window

While resizing interactively, changes are in multiples of the amount of pixels given by set resizeunit (by default 10). Restart ratpoison. Show or set what kind of windows are allowed to jostle into the foreground.

rudeness is a bitwise or of the following values:

1 Transient windows may raise.

2 Normal windows may raise.

4 New transient windows end up in the foreground.

8 New normal windows end up in the foreground.

Default is all allowed i.e. 15.

Output the list of all screens. The screens are separated by commas. Each screen is shown as 6 values: its number, its x-coordinate, its y-coordinate, its width, its height and if it is currently selected (1=true,0=false). If a number is given, switch to the window with number nr. If a name is given, switch to the window in the current group with name name. Blank the current frame, if - is given. If no argument is given, output all ratpoison variables and their values.

If one argument is given, output the value of ratpoison variable variable.

Otherwise set ratpoison variable variable to value. What values are valid depends on the variable. See the section VARIABLES later in this document for details. Set the environment variable variable to value. (Environment variables will be passed to all programs started from ratpoison.) Output all frames similar to fdump, but not limited to one screen, but all screens at once and with the screen number after each frame. Shrink the current frame to the size of the current window with in. alias for vsplit Read file and execute each line as ratpoison command. Switch to the screen screennumber. (If you have multiple physical ones.) Select whether ratpoison will show a startup message or not. Output current data and time. Overwrite the title of the current window with newname. All following ratpoison commands will only know the window under the new name. Temporarily give control over to the other window manager tmpwm, reclaiming control when that WM terminates. Remove the alias alias. alias for "undefinekey root key" Remove the binding for key from keymap. Un-do the last change to the frameset. (Like splitting, resizing, deleting, ...)

The amount of steps that can be undone is specified by the variable maxundos. Add name to the list of unmanaged windows. Thus, windows of this name will not be managed but allowed to choose their position themselves.

In non-interactive mode calling it without arguments will print the list.

The list can be cleared again by calling clrunmanaged. Remove variable variable from the list of environment variables. Spawn a shell executing cmdline after showing a message with the command. Output version and compile time information. Split the current frame into upper frame and a lower frame. If no parameter is given, split in halves. If two numbers separated by a slash ("/") are given, the upper one is l times the pth part and the lower one (p-l) times the pth part of the prior height. Otherwise the lower one is pixels from bottom wide or the upper one pixels from top high, depending whether there is a - in front of the number or not. Select if focusing a window moves the rat cursor to the place it had been last time this window was focused, or not. In interactive mode, show the list of all windows in the current group for the duration specified by msgwait If msgwait is zero, toggle between indefinitely showing and not showing.

The messages are shown in columns or rows depending on the setting of winliststyle in the format set by set winfmt. The following substitutions happen in format:

%n by the window number,

%s by window status (* is active window, + would be chosen by other, - otherwise)

%t by the window name (see set winname),

%a by the application name,

%c by the resource class,

%i by the X Window ID,

%l by the last access number,

%f by the frame number and

%% by a single %

In non-interactive mode, output the list of windows in the current group line by line. The format string can be overwritten by the optional parameter format.

Ratpoison variables can be shown and set with set. There are: Set the amount of pixels interactive resizeing will add/subtract in each step.

Default is 5. The maximal amount of step ratpoison can undo with the undo command.

Default is 20. Set the default gravity new normal windows will get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is northwest. Set the default gravity new self-maximised windows will get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is center. Set the default gravity new transient windows will get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is center. Select the location where message and prompt bars appear.

Default is northeast. Make ratpoison use font font. Set how much space at the borders of the screen will not be used.

Default is 0 0 0 0. Selects how thick the frame around windows is.

Default is 1. Selects how thick the frame around ratpoison's prompt or message windows is.

Default is 1. Determine the width of the input window.

Default is 200. Determine whether to change the rat cursor when waiting for a key (1) or not (0). (see readkey and describekey).

Default is 1. Choose the default format for the the windows command.

Default is %n%s%t. Choose what is considered the "name" of the window by ratpoison: title The title of the window.

name The resource name of the window.

class The resource class i.e. the name of the application.

Default is title. The foreground color of the windows ratpoison creates.

Default is black. The background color of the windows ratpoison creates.

Default is white. Set horizontal padding of ratpoison windows to x and vertical padding to y.

Default is 4 0 Determines whether windows are shown in rows or in columns.

Default is column. Override the frame selectors fselect uses. The first character is the selector for the first frame, the second character is the selector for the second frame and so on.

Using this variable, one can directly access more than 10 frames.

Default is an empty string, which is equivalent to "0123456789".

Upstream Author is Shawn Betts <sabetts@vcn.bc.ca>.

See /usr/share/doc/ratpoison/AUTHORS for other contributors.

This manual page was written by Bernhard R. Link <brlink@debian.org>.