herbstluftwm

string global_path = globalAutostart: Path of the system-wide autostart, used as a fallback.

int last_status = 0: the exit status of the last autostart run. if the autostart is still running, then this status corresponds to the exit status of the previous autostart invocation.

string path = autostartFromCmdLine: Custom path to the user’s autostart path. If it is empty, then the autostart in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME is used.

uint pid = 0: the process id of the last autostart invocation. Even if the autostart is not running anymore, its pid is still present here.

bool running = false: whether the autostart process (with pid) is still running.

dragged: the object of a client which is currently dragged by the mouse, if any. See the documentation of the mousebind command for examples. For attributes and children, see clients.focus

focus: the focused client (only exists if a client is focused). a managed window

uint count

by-name: This has an entry name for every object with the given name. If an object has an empty name then it is not listed here.

focus: the focused monitor. The monitor is a rectangular part on the screen that holds precisely one tag at a time. The pad attributes reserve space on the monitor’s edge for panels, so this space (given in number of pixels) is never occupied by tiled clients.

uint count

0xWindowID: a panel is an unmanaged window that reserves space at the edge of the monitor it is on. The space depends on the _NET_WM_STRUT defined by the panel. If it is however not defined explicitly, then the amount of reserved space is inferred from the window geometry.

bool always_show_frame = false: If set, all frames are displayed. If unset, only frames with focus or with windows in them are displayed.

bool auto_detect_monitors = false: If set, detect_monitors is automatically executed every time a monitor is connected, disconnected or resized.

bool auto_detect_panels = true: If set, EWMH panels are automatically detected and reserve space at the side of the monitors they are on (via pad attributes of each monitor). This setting is activated per default.

bool default_direction_external_only = false: This setting controls the behaviour of focus and shift if no -e or -i argument is given. If set, then focus and shift changes the focused frame even if there are other clients in this frame in the specified DIRECTION. Else, a client within current frame is selected if it is in the specified DIRECTION.

LayoutAlgorithm default_frame_layout = vertical: Name of the layout algorithm, which is used if a new frame is created (on a new tag or by a non-trivial split). See above for the list of layout algorithms.

string ellipsis = …: string to append when window or tab titles are shortened to fit in the available space.

bool focus_crosses_monitor_boundaries = true: If set, commands focus and shift cross monitor boundaries. If there is no client in the direction given to focus, then the monitor in the specified direction is focused. Similarly, if shift cannot move a window within a tag, the window is moved to the neighbour monitor in the desired direction.

bool focus_follows_mouse = false: If set and a window is focused by mouse cursor, this window is focused (this feature is also known as sloppy focus). If unset, you need to click to change the window focus by mouse.

If another window is hidden by the focus change (e.g. when having pseudotiled windows in the max layout) then an extra click is required to change the focus.

bool focus_stealing_prevention = true: If set, only pagers and taskbars are allowed to change the focus. If unset, all applications can request a focus change.

int frame_active_opacity = 100: Focused frame opacity in percent. Requires a running compositing manager to take actual effect.

color frame_bg_active_color = black: The fill color of a focused frame.

color frame_bg_normal_color = black: The fill color of an unfocused frame (It is only visible if always_show_frame is set).

bool frame_bg_transparent = false: If set, the background of frames are transparent. That means a rectangle is cut out from the inner such that only the frame border and a stripe of width frame_transparent_width can be seen. Use frame_active_opacity and frame_normal_opacity for real transparency.

color frame_border_active_color = red: The border color of a focused frame.

color frame_border_inner_color = black: The color of the inner border of a frame.

int frame_border_inner_width = 0: The width of the inner border of a frame. Must be less than frame_border_width, since it does not add to the frame border width but is a part of it.

color frame_border_normal_color = blue: The border color of an unfocused frame.

int frame_border_width = 2: Border width of a frame.

int frame_gap = 5: The gap between frames in the tiling mode.

int frame_normal_opacity = 100: Unfocused frame opacity in percent. Requires a running compositing manager to take actual effect.

int frame_padding = 0: The padding within a frame in the tiling mode, i.e. the space between the border of a frame and the windows within it.

int frame_transparent_width = 0: Specifies the width of the remaining frame colored with frame_bg_active_color if frame_bg_transparent is set.

bool gapless_grid = true: This setting affects the size of the last client in a frame that is arranged by grid layout. If set, then the last client always fills the gap within this frame. If unset, then the last client has the same size as all other clients in this frame.

bool hide_covered_windows = false: If activated, windows are explicitly hidden when they are covered by another window in a frame with max layout. This only has a visible effect if a compositor is used. If activated, shadows do not stack up and transparent windows show the wallpaper behind them instead of the other clients in the max layout.

uint monitors_locked = 0: If greater than 0, then the clients on all monitors aren’t moved or resized anymore. If it is set to 0, then the arranging of monitors is enabled again, and all monitors are rearranged if their content has changed in the meantime. You should not change this setting manually due to concurrency issues; use the commands lock and unlock instead.

int mouse_recenter_gap = 0: Specifies the gap around a monitor. If the monitor is selected and the mouse position would be restored into this gap, it is set to the center of the monitor. This is useful, when the monitor was left via mouse movement, but is reselected by keyboard. If the gap is 0 (default), the mouse is never recentered.

int pseudotile_center_threshold = 10: If greater than 0, it specifies the least distance between a centered pseudotile window and the border of the frame or tile it is assigned to. If this distance is lower than pseudotile_center_threshold, it is aligned to the top left of the client’s tile.

bool raise_on_click = true: If set, a window is raised if it is clicked. The value of this setting is only noticed in floating mode.

bool raise_on_focus = false: If set, a window is raised if it is focused. The value of this setting is only used in floating mode.

bool raise_on_focus_temporarily = false: If set, a window is raised temporarily if it is focused on its tag. Temporarily in this case means that the window will return to its previous stacking position if another window is focused.

SmartFrameSurroundings smart_frame_surroundings = off: If set to hide_all, frame borders and gaps will be removed when there is no ambiguity regarding the focused frame. If set to hide_gaps, only frame gaps will be removed when there is no ambiguity regarding the focused frame. Turn off to always show frame borders and gaps.

bool smart_window_surroundings = false: If set, window borders and gaps will be removed and minimal when there’s no ambiguity regarding the focused window. This minimal window decoration can be configured by the theme.minimal object.

int snap_distance = 10: If a client is dragged in floating mode, then it snaps to neighbour clients if the distance between them is smaller than snap_distance.

int snap_gap = 5: Specifies the remaining gap if a dragged client snaps to an edge in floating mode. If snap_gap is set to 0, no gap will remain.

bool swap_monitors_to_get_tag = true: If set: If you want to view a tag, that already is viewed on another monitor, then the monitor contents will be swapped and you see the wanted tag on the focused monitor. If not set, the other monitor is focused if it shows the desired tag.

bool tabbed_max = true: if activated, multiple windows in a frame with the max layout algorithm are drawn as tabs.

string tree_style = "*| +`--.": It contains the chars that are used to print a nice ascii tree. It must contain at least 8 characters. e.g. X|:#+*-. produces a tree like:

X-.
  #-. child 0
  | #-* child 00
  | +-* child 01
  +-. child 1
  : #-* child 10
  : +-* child 11

bool update_dragged_clients = false: If set, a client's window content is resized immediately during resizing it with the mouse. If unset, the client's content is resized after the mouse button is released.

bool verbose = false: If set, verbose output is logged to herbstluftwm’s stderr. The default value is controlled by the --verbose command line flag.

color window_border_active_color: Border color of a focused window.

Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.active.color.

color window_border_inner_color: Color of the inner border of a window. Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.inner_color.

int window_border_inner_width: The width of the inner border of a window. Must be less than window_border_width, since it does not add to the window border width but is a part of it.

Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.inner_width.

color window_border_normal_color: Border color of an unfocused window.

Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.normal.color.

color window_border_urgent_color: Border color of an unfocused but urgent window.

Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.urgent.color.

int window_border_width: Border width of a window.

Warning: This only exists for compatibility reasons; it is only an alias for the attribute theme.border_width.

int window_gap = 0: The gap between windows within one frame in the tiling mode.

string wmname = herbstluftwm: It controls the value of the _NET_WM_NAME property on the root window, which specifies the name of the running window manager. The value of this setting is not updated if the actual _NET_WM_NAME property on the root window is changed externally. Example usage:

uint count

by-name: For attributes and children, see monitors.by-name

focus: the object of the focused tag, equivalently, the tag on the focused monitor.

color background_color = black: color behind window contents visible on resize

uint border_width = 0: the base width of the border

color color = black: the basic background color of the border

color inner_color = black: color of the inner border

uint inner_width = 0: width of the border around the clients content

color outer_color = black: color of the outer border

uint outer_width = 0: width of an border close to the edge

uint padding_bottom = 0: additional border width on the bottom

uint padding_left = 0: additional border width on the left

uint padding_right = 0: additional border width on the right

uint padding_top = 0: additional border width on the top

string reset: writing this resets all attributes to a default value

MaybeColor tab_color = Inherit: if non-empty, the color of non-urgent and unfocused tabs

MaybeColor tab_outer_color = Inherit: if non-empty, the outer border color of non-urgent and unfocused tabs; if empty, the colors are taken from the tab’sclient decoration settings.

MaybeULong tab_outer_width = Inherit: if non-empty, the outer border width of non-urgent and unfocused tabs

MaybeColor tab_title_color = Inherit: if non-empty, the title color of non-urgent and unfocused tabs

bool tight_decoration = false: specifies whether the size hints also affect the window decoration or only the window contents of tiled clients (requires enabled sizehints_tiling)

TextAlign title_align = left: the horizontal alignment of the title within the tab or title bar. The value is one of: left, center, right

color title_color = black

int title_depth = 0: the space below the baseline of the window title

font title_font = fixed

uint title_height = 0

TitleWhen title_when = always: when to show the window title: always, never, if the the client is in a tabbed scenario like a max frame (one_tab), if there are multiple_tabs to be shown.

active: configures the decoration of the focused client.

floating: behaves analogously to tiling.

fullscreen: configures clients in fullscreen state. For attributes and children, see theme.floating

minimal: configures clients with minimal decorations triggered by smart_window_surroundings. For attributes and children, see theme.floating

normal: the default decoration scheme for clients. For attributes and children, see theme.active

tiling: configures the decoration of tiled clients, setting one of its attributes propagates the respective attribute of the active, normal and urgent child objects. For attributes and children, see theme.floating

urgent: configures the decoration of urgent clients. For attributes and children, see theme.active

bool: Type representing boolean values, i.e. an on or off state, with aliases true and false. When writing to a boolean value, one can also specify toggle in order to alter its value.

color: Type representing colors. A color can be defined in one of the following formats:

decimal: Fixed precision decimal numbers, e.g. 0.34. For attributes and children, see types.bool

font: A font specification (font family with modifiers regarding size, weight, etc.) in one of the following formats:

int: Type representing signed integers. When overwriting an integer, you can increase or decrease its value relatively by writing +=N or -=N where N is an integer. So for example, writing +=3 to an attribute increases its value by 3. For attributes and children, see types.bool

names: A fixed set of names, depending on the context, e.g. names of layout algorithms or the split type of a non-leaf frame (which is only horizontal or vertical). For attributes and children, see types.bool

rectangle: A rectangle on the screen consisting of a size and the position on the screen. The format is WxH+X+Y where W is the width, H is the height, and X and Y are the coordinates of the top left corner of the rectangle: X is the number of pixels to the left screen edge and Y is the number of pixels to the top screen edge. (if X or Y is negative, then the + turns into -). For example: 800x600+800+0 or 400x200-10+30. For attributes and children, see types.bool

regex: A POSIX extended regular expression. Note that when passing a regex on the command line, additional quoting can be necessary. For explanations and examples, see section 9.4.6 of the documentation: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap09.html#tag_09_04_06. For attributes and children, see types.bool

string: Type representing normal text. For attributes and children, see types.bool

uint: Type representing unsigned (i.e. non-negative) integers. When overwriting an integer, you can increase or decrease its value relatively by writing +=N or -=N where N is an integer. For attributes and children, see types.bool

windowid: The window id is the number of a window. This can be a managed window (i.e. client) or an unmanaged window (e.g. a panel, a menu, or a desktop window). The default format is 0xHEX where HEX is a hexadecimal number (digits 0-9 and a-f) but it can also be specified in the decimal system (base 10), or as an octal number (with prefix 0 and base 8). When a window id is printed, it is always printed in the 0xHEX format and without any leading zeroes. For attributes and children, see types.bool

uint count: the number of attributes that are watched