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TWM(1) TWM(1)
NAME
twm - Tab Window Manager for the X Window System
SYNTAX
twm [ -display dpy ] [ -s ] [ -f initfile ] [ -v ]
DESCRIPTION
Twm is a window manager for the X Window System. It provides title-
bars, shaped windows, several forms of icon management, user-defined
macro functions, click-to-type and pointer-driven keyboard focus, and
user-specified key and pointer button bindings.
This program is usually started by the user's session manager or
startup script. When used from xdm(1) or xinit(1) without a session
manager, twm is frequently executed in the foreground as the last
client. When run this way, exiting twm causes the session to be ter-
minated (i.e., logged out).
By default, application windows are surrounded by a ''frame'' with a
titlebar at the top and a special border around the window. The
titlebar contains the window's name, a rectangle that is lit when the
window is receiving keyboard input, and function boxes known as
''titlebuttons'' at the left and right edges of the titlebar.
Pressing pointer Button1 (usually the left-most button unless it has
been changed with xmodmap) on a titlebutton will invoke the function
associated with the button. In the default interface, windows are
iconified by clicking (pressing and then immediately releasing) the
left titlebutton (which looks like a Dot). Conversely, windows are
deiconified by clicking in the associated icon or entry in the icon
manager (see description of the variable ShowIconManager and of the
function f.showiconmgr).
Windows are resized by pressing the right titlebutton (which resembles
a group of nested squares), dragging the pointer over edge that is to
be moved, and releasing the pointer when the outline of the window is
the desired size. Similarly, windows are moved by pressing in the
title or highlight region, dragging a window outline to the new loca-
tion, and then releasing when the outline is in the desired position.
Just clicking in the title or highlight region raises the window with-
out moving it.
When new windows are created, twm will honor any size and location
information requested by the user (usually through -geometry command
line argument or resources for the individual applications). Other-
wise, an outline of the window's default size, its titlebar, and lines
dividing the window into a 3x3 grid that track the pointer are dis-
played. Clicking pointer Button1 will position the window at the cur-
rent position and give it the default size. Pressing pointer Button2
(usually the middle pointer button) and dragging the outline will give
the window its current position but allow the sides to be resized as
described above. Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer
button) will give the window its current position but attempt to make
it long enough to touch the bottom the screen.
OPTIONS
Twm accepts the following command line options:
-display dpy
This option specifies the X server to use.
-s This option indicates that only the default screen (as speci-
fied by -display or by the DISPLAY environment variable)
should be managed. By default, twm will attempt to manage all
screens on the display.
-f filename
This option specifies the name of the startup file to use. By
default, twm will look in the user's home directory for files
named .twmrc.num (where num is a screen number) or .twmrc.
-v This option indicates that twm should print error messages
whenever an unexpected X Error event is received. This can be
useful when debugging applications but can be distracting in
regular use.
CUSTOMIZATION
Much of twm's appearance and behavior can be controlled by providing a
startup file in one of the following locations (searched in order for
each screen being managed when twm begins):
$HOME/.twmrc.screennumber
The screennumber is a small positive number (e.g. 0, 1, etc.)
representing the screen number (e.g. the last number in the
DISPLAY environment variable host:displaynum.screennum) that
would be used to contact that screen of the display. This is
intended for displays with multiple screens of differing
visual types.
$HOME/.twmrc
This is the usual name for an individual user's startup file.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc
If neither of the preceding files are found, twm will look in
this file for a default configuration. This is often tailored
by the site administrator to provide convenient menus or
familiar bindings for novice users.
If no startup files are found, twm will use the built-in defaults
described above. The only resource used by twm is bitmapFilePath for
a colon-separated list of directories to search when looking for
bitmap files (for more information, see the Athena Widgets manual and
xrdb(1)).
Twm startup files are logically broken up into three types of specifi-
cations: Variables, Bindings, Menus. The Variables section must come
first and is used to describe the fonts, colors, cursors, border
widths, icon and window placement, highlighting, autoraising, layout
of titles, warping, use of the icon manager. The Bindings section
usually comes second and is used to specify the functions that should
be to be invoked when keyboard and pointer buttons are pressed in win-
dows, icons, titles, and frames. The Menus section gives any user-
defined menus (containing functions to be invoked or commands to be
executed).
Variable names and keywords are case-insensitive. Strings must be
surrounded by double quote characters (e.g. "blue") and are case-sen-
sitive. A pound sign (#) outside of a string causes the remainder of
the line in which the character appears to be treated as a comment.
VARIABLES
Many of the aspects of twm's user interface are controlled by vari-
ables that may be set in the user's startup file. Some of the options
are enabled or disabled simply by the presence of a particular key-
word. Other options require keywords, numbers, strings, or lists of
all of these.
Lists are surrounded by braces and are usually separated by whitespace
or a newline. For example:
AutoRaise { "emacs" "XTerm" "Xmh" }
or
AutoRaise
{
"emacs"
"XTerm"
"Xmh"
}
When a variable containing a list of strings representing windows is
searched (e.g. to determine whether or not to enable autoraise as
shown above), a string must be an exact, case-sensitive match to the
window's name (given by the WM_NAME window property), resource name or
class name (both given by the WM_CLASS window property). The preced-
ing example would enable autoraise on windows named ''emacs'' as well
as any xterm (since they are of class ''XTerm'') or xmh windows (which
are of class ''Xmh'').
String arguments that are interpreted as filenames (see the Pixmaps,
Cursors, and IconDirectory below) will prepend the user's directory
(specified by the HOME environment variable) if the first character is
a tilde (~). If, instead, the first character is a colon (:), the
name is assumed to refer to one of the internal bitmaps that are used
to create the default titlebars symbols: :xlogo or :delete (both
refer to the X logo), :dot or :iconify (both refer to the dot),
:resize (the nested squares used by the resize button), :menu (a page
with lines), and :question (the question mark used for non-existent
bitmap files).
The following variables may be specified at the top of a twm startup
file. Lists of Window name prefix strings are indicated by win-list.
Optional arguments are shown in square brackets:
AutoRaise { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that should automat-
ically be raised whenever the pointer enters the window. This
action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual
windows using the function f.autoraise.
AutoRelativeResize
This variable indicates that dragging out a window size
(either when initially sizing the window with pointer Button2
or when resizing it) should not wait until the pointer has
crossed the window edges. Instead, moving the pointer auto-
matically causes the nearest edge or edges to move by the same
amount. This allows the resizing of windows that extend off
the edge of the screen. If the pointer is in the center of
the window, or if the resize is begun by pressing a titlebut-
ton, twm will still wait for the pointer to cross a window
edge (to prevent accidents). This option is particularly use-
ful for people who like the press-drag-release method of
sweeping out window sizes.
BorderColor string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default color of the border to be
placed around all non-iconified windows, and may only be given
within a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
wincolorlist specifies a list of window and color name pairs
for specifying particular border colors for different types of
windows. For example:
BorderColor "gray50"
{
"XTerm" "red"
"xmh" "green"
}
The default is "black".
BorderTileBackground string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default background color in the
gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHigh-
light hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist
allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is
"white".
BorderTileForeground string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default foreground color in the
gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHigh-
light hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist
allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is
"black".
BorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding all client window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not
been specified. This value is also used to set the border
size of windows created by twm (such as the icon manager).
The default is 2.
ButtonIndent pixels
This variable specifies the amount by which titlebuttons
should be indented on all sides. Positive values cause the
buttons to be smaller than the window text and highlight area
so that they stand out. Setting this and the TitleButtonBor-
derWidth variables to 0 makes titlebuttons be as tall and wide
as possible. The default is 1.
ClientBorderWidth
This variable indicates that border width of a window's frame
should be set to the initial border width of the window,
rather than to the value of BorderWidth.
Color { colors-list }
This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made
if the default display is capable of displaying more than sim-
ple black and white. The colors-list is made up of the fol-
lowing color variables and their values: DefaultBackground,
DefaultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitle-
Background, MenuTitleForeground, MenuShadowColor, MenuBorder-
Color, PointerForeground, and PointerBackground. The follow-
ing color variables may also be given a list of window and
color name pairs to allow per-window colors to be specified
(see BorderColor for details): BorderColor, IconManagerHigh-
light, BorderTitleBackground, BorderTitleForeground, Title-
Background, TitleForeground, IconBackground, IconForeground,
IconBorderColor, IconManagerBackground, and IconManagerFore-
ground. For example:
Color
{
MenuBackground "gray50"
MenuForeground "blue"
BorderColor "red" { "XTerm" "yellow" }
TitleForeground "yellow"
TitleBackground "blue"
}
All of these color variables may also be specified for the
Monochrome variable, allowing the same initialization file to
be used on both color and monochrome displays.
ConstrainedMoveTime milliseconds
This variable specifies the length of time between button
clicks needed to begin a constrained move operation. Double
clicking within this amount of time when invoking f.move will
cause the window to be moved only in a horizontal or vertical
direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained
moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.
Cursors { cursor-list }
This variable specifies the glyphs that twm should use for
various pointer cursors. Each cursor may be defined either
from the cursor font or from two bitmap files. Shapes from
the cursor font may be specified directly as:
cursorname "string"
where cursorname is one of the cursor names listed below, and
string is the name of a glyph as found in the file
/usr/X11R6/include/X11/cursorfont.h (without the ''XC_'' pre-
fix). If the cursor is to be defined from bitmap files, the
following syntax is used instead:
cursorname "image" "mask"
The image and mask strings specify the names of files contain-
ing the glyph image and mask in bitmap(1) form. The bitmap
files are located in the same manner as icon bitmap files.
The following example shows the default cursor definitions:
Cursors
{
Frame "top_left_arrow"
Title "top_left_arrow"
Icon "top_left_arrow"
IconMgr "top_left_arrow"
Move "fleur"
Resize "fleur"
Menu "sb_left_arrow"
Button "hand2"
Wait "watch"
Select "dot"
Destroy "pirate"
}
DecorateTransients
This variable indicates that transient windows (those contain-
ing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property) should have titlebars. By
default, transients are not reparented.
DefaultBackground string
This variable specifies the background color to be used for
sizing and information windows. The default is "white".
DefaultForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for
sizing and information windows. The default is "black".
DontIconifyByUnmapping { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that should not be
iconified by simply unmapping the window (as would be the case
if IconifyByUnmapping had been set). This is frequently used
to force some windows to be treated as icons while other win-
dows are handled by the icon manager.
DontMoveOff
This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to
be moved off the screen. It can be overridden by the f.force-
move function.
DontSqueezeTitle [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that titlebars should not be squeezed
to their minimum size as described under SqueezeTitle below.
If the optional window list is supplied, only those windows
will be prevented from being squeezed.
ForceIcons
This variable indicates that icon pixmaps specified in the
Icons variable should override any client-supplied pixmaps.
FramePadding pixels
This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar dec-
orations (the button and text) and the window frame. The
default is 2 pixels.
Grayscale { colors }
This variable specifies a list of color assignments that
should be made if the screen has a GrayScale default visual.
See the description of Colors.
IconBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may
only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and
colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-
list. The default is "white".
IconBorderColor string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon
windows, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
description of the win-list. The default is "black".
IconBorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding icon windows. The default is 2.
IconDirectory string
This variable specifies the directory that should be searched
if if a bitmap file cannot be found in any of the directories
in the bitmapFilePath resource.
IconFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon
names within icons. The default is "variable".
IconForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
displaying icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
description of the win-list. The default is "black".
IconifyByUnmapping [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by
being unmapped without trying to map any icons. This assumes
that the user will remap the window through the icon manager,
the f.warpto function, or the TwmWindows menu. If the
optional win-list is provided, only those windows will be
iconified by simply unmapping. Windows that have both this
and the IconManagerDontShow options set may not be accessible
if no binding to the TwmWindows menu is set in the user's
startup file.
IconManagerBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color to use for icon
manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
description of the win-list. The default is "white".
IconManagerDontShow [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the icon manager should not dis-
play any windows. If the optional win-list is given, only
those windows will not be displayed. This variable is used to
prevent windows that are rarely iconified (such as xclock or
xload) from taking up space in the icon manager.
IconManagerFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying
icon manager entries. The default is "variable".
IconManagerForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
displaying icon manager entries, and may only be specified
inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-win-
dow colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for
a complete description of the win-list. The default is
"black".
IconManagerGeometry string [ columns ]
This variable specifies the geometry of the icon manager win-
dow. The string argument is standard geometry specification
that indicates the initial full size of the icon manager. The
icon manager window is then broken into columns pieces and
scaled according to the number of entries in the icon manager.
Extra entries are wrapped to form additional rows. The
default number of columns is 1.
IconManagerHighlight string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the border color to be used when high-
lighting the icon manager entry that currently has the focus,
and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or
Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window
names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified.
See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the
win-list. The default is "black".
IconManagers { iconmgr-list }
This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create.
Each item in the iconmgr-list has the following format:
"winname" ["iconname"] "geometry" columns
where winname is the name of the windows that should be put
into this icon manager, iconname is the name of that icon man-
ager window's icon, geometry is a standard geometry specifica-
tion, and columns is the number of columns in this icon man-
ager as described in IconManagerGeometry. For example:
IconManagers
{
"XTerm" "=300x5+800+5" 5
"myhost" "=400x5+100+5" 2
}
Clients whose name or class is ''XTerm'' will have an entry
created in the ''XTerm'' icon manager. Clients whose name was
''myhost'' would be put into the ''myhost'' icon manager.
IconManagerShow { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear
in the icon manager. When used in conjunction with the Icon-
ManagerDontShow variable, only the windows in this list will
be shown in the icon manager.
IconRegion geomstring vgrav hgrav gridwidth gridheight
This variable specifies an area on the root window in which
icons are placed if no specific icon location is provided by
the client. The geomstring is a quoted string containing a
standard geometry specification. If more than one IconRegion
lines are given, icons will be put into the succeeding icon
regions when the first is full. The vgrav argument should be
either North or South and control and is used to control
whether icons are first filled in from the top or bottom of
the icon region. Similarly, the hgrav argument should be
either East or West and is used to control whether icons
should be filled in from left from the right. Icons are laid
out within the region in a grid with cells gridwidth pixels
wide and gridheight pixels high.
Icons { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of window names and the bitmap
filenames that should be used as their icons. For example:
Icons
{
"XTerm" "xterm.icon"
"xfd" "xfd_icon"
}
Windows that match ''XTerm'' and would not be iconified by
unmapping, and would try to use the icon bitmap in the file
''xterm.icon''. If ForceIcons is specified, this bitmap will
be used even if the client has requested its own icon pixmap.
InterpolateMenuColors
This variable indicates that menu entry colors should be
interpolated between entry specified colors. In the example
below:
Menu "mymenu"
{
"Title" ("black":"red") f.title
"entry1" f.nop
"entry2" f.nop
"entry3" ("white":"green") f.nop
"entry4" f.nop
"entry5" ("red":"white") f.nop
}
the foreground colors for ''entry1'' and ''entry2'' will be
interpolated between black and white, and the background col-
ors between red and green. Similarly, the foreground for
''entry4'' will be half-way between white and red, and the
background will be half-way between green and white.
MakeTitle { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows on which a titlebar
should be placed and is used to request titles on specific
windows when NoTitle has been set.
MaxWindowSize string
This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and
height give the maximum size for a given window. This is typ-
ically used to restrict windows to the size of the screen.
The default width is 32767 - screen width. The default height
is 32767 - screen height.
MenuBackground string
This variable specifies the background color used for menus,
and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome
list. The default is "white".
MenuBorderColor string
This variable specifies the color of the menu border and can
only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
list. The default is "black".
MenuBorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding menu windows. The default is 2.
MenuFont string
This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus.
The default is "variable".
MenuForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus,
and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or
Monochrome list. The default is "black".
MenuShadowColor string
This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-
down menus and can only be specified inside of a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "black".
MenuTitleBackground string
This variable specifies the background color for f.title
entries in menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color,
Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "white".
MenuTitleForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color for f.title
entries in menus and can only be specified inside of a Color
or Monochrome list. The default is "black".
Monochrome { colors }
This variable specifies a list of color assignments that
should be made if the screen has a depth of 1. See the
description of Colors.
MoveDelta pixels
This variable specifies the number of pixels the pointer must
move before the f.move function starts working. Also see the
f.deltastop function. The default is zero pixels.
NoBackingStore
This variable indicates that twm's menus should not request
backing store to minimize repainting of menus. This is typi-
cally used with servers that can repaint faster than they can
handle backing store.
NoCaseSensitive
This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sort-
ing icon names in an icon manager. This option is typically
used with applications that capitalize the first letter of
their icon name.
NoDefaults
This variable indicates that twm should not supply the default
titlebuttons and bindings. This option should only be used if
the startup file contains a completely new set of bindings and
definitions.
NoGrabServer
This variable indicates that twm should not grab the server
when popping up menus and moving opaque windows.
NoHighlight [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that borders should not be highlighted
to track the location of the pointer. If the optional win-
list is given, highlighting will only be disabled for those
windows. When the border is highlighted, it will be drawn in
the current BorderColor. When the border is not highlighted,
it will be stippled with a gray pattern using the current Bor-
derTileForeground and BorderTileBackground colors.
NoIconManagers
This variable indicates that no icon manager should be cre-
ated.
NoMenuShadows
This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shad-
ows drawn behind them. This is typically used with slower
servers since it speeds up menu drawing at the expense of mak-
ing the menu slightly harder to read.
NoRaiseOnDeiconify
This variable indicates that windows that are deiconified
should not be raised.
NoRaiseOnMove
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
moved. This is typically used to allow windows to slide
underneath each other.
NoRaiseOnResize
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
resized. This is typically used to allow windows to be
resized underneath each other.
NoRaiseOnWarp
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
the pointer is warped into them with the f.warpto function.
If this option is set, warping to an occluded window may
result in the pointer ending up in the occluding window
instead the desired window (which causes unexpected behavior
with f.warpring).
NoSaveUnders
This variable indicates that menus should not request save-
unders to minimize window repainting following menu selection.
It is typically used with displays that can repaint faster
than they can handle save-unders.
NoStackMode [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that client window requests to change
stacking order should be ignored. If the optional win-list is
given, only requests on those windows will be ignored. This
is typically used to prevent applications from relentlessly
popping themselves to the front of the window stack.
NoTitle [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that windows should not have title-
bars. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows
will not have titlebars. MakeTitle may be used with this
option to force titlebars to be put on specific windows.
NoTitleFocus
This variable indicates that twm should not set keyboard input
focus to each window as it is entered. Normally, twm sets the
focus so that focus and key events from the titlebar and icon
managers are delivered to the application. If the pointer is
moved quickly and twm is slow to respond, input can be
directed to the old window instead of the new. This option is
typically used to prevent this ''input lag'' and to work
around bugs in older applications that have problems with
focus events.
NoTitleHighlight [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the highlight area of the title-
bar, which is used to indicate the window that currently has
the input focus, should not be displayed. If the optional
win-list is given, only those windows will not have highlight
areas. This and the SqueezeTitle options can be set to sub-
stantially reduce the amount of screen space required by
titlebars.
OpaqueMove
This variable indicates that the f.move function should actu-
ally move the window instead of just an outline so that the
user can immediately see what the window will look like in the
new position. This option is typically used on fast displays
(particularly if NoGrabServer is set).
Pixmaps { pixmaps }
This variable specifies a list of pixmaps that define the
appearance of various images. Each entry is a keyword indi-
cating the pixmap to set, followed by a string giving the name
of the bitmap file. The following pixmaps may be specified:
Pixmaps
{
TitleHighlight "gray1"
}
The default for TitleHighlight is to use an even stipple pat-
tern.
Priority priority
This variable sets twm's priority. priority should be an
unquoted, signed number (e.g. 999). This variable has an
effect only if the server supports the SYNC extension.
RandomPlacement
This variable indicates that windows with no specified geome-
try should be placed in a pseudo-random location instead of
having the user drag out an outline.
ResizeFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimen-
sions window when resizing windows. The default is "fixed".
RestartPreviousState
This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
WM_STATE property on client windows to tell which windows
should be iconified and which should be left visible. This is
typically used to try to regenerate the state that the screen
was in before the previous window manager was shutdown.
SaveColor { colors-list }
This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be
stored as pixel values in the root window property _MIT_PRIOR-
ITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these values when
installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mecha-
nism is a way an for application to avoid the "technicolor"
problem, whereby useful screen objects such as window borders
and titlebars disappear when a programs custom colors are
installed by the window manager. For example:
SaveColor
{
BorderColor
TitleBackground
TitleForeground
"red"
"green"
"blue"
}
This would place on the root window 3 pixel values for borders
and titlebars, as well as the three color strings, all taken
from the default colormap.
ShowIconManager
This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be
displayed when twm is started. It can always be brought up
using the f.showiconmgr function.
SortIconManager
This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager
should be sorted alphabetically rather than by simply append-
ing new windows to the end.
SqueezeTitle [{ squeeze-list }]
This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
SHAPE extension to make titlebars occupy only as much screen
space as they need, rather than extending all the way across
the top of the window. The optional squeeze-list may be used
to control the location of the squeezed titlebar along the top
of the window. It contains entries of the form:
"name" justification num denom
where name is a window name, justification is either left,
center, or right, and num and denom are numbers specifying a
ratio giving the relative position about which the titlebar is
justified. The ratio is measured from left to right if the
numerator is positive, and right to left if negative. A
denominator of 0 indicates that the numerator should be mea-
sured in pixels. For convenience, the ratio 0/0 is the same
as 1/2 for center and -1/1 for right. For example:
SqueezeTitle
{
"XTerm" left 0 0
"xterm1" left 1 3
"xterm2" left 2 3
"oclock" center 0 0
"emacs" right 0 0
}
The DontSqueezeTitle list can be used to turn off squeezing on
certain titles.
StartIconified [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that client windows should initially
be left as icons until explicitly deiconified by the user. If
the optional win-list is given, only those windows will be
started iconic. This is useful for programs that do not sup-
port an -iconic command line option or resource.
TitleBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color used in title-
bars, and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale
or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window
names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified.
The default is "white".
TitleButtonBorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding titlebuttons. This is typically set to 0 to allow
titlebuttons to take up as much space as possible and to not
have a border. The default is 1.
TitleFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used for displaying
window names in titlebars. The default is "variable".
TitleForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color used in title-
bars, and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale
or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window
names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified.
The default is "black".
TitlePadding pixels
This variable specifies the distance between the various but-
tons, text, and highlight areas in the titlebar. The default
is 8 pixels.
UnknownIcon string
This variable specifies the filename of a bitmap file to be
used as the default icon. This bitmap will be used as the
icon of all clients which do not provide an icon bitmap and
are not listed in the Icons list.
UsePPosition string
This variable specifies whether or not twm should honor pro-
gram-requested locations (given by the PPosition flag in the
WM_NORMAL_HINTS property) in the absence of a user-specified
position. The argument string may have one of three values:
"off" (the default) indicating that twm should ignore the pro-
gram-supplied position, "on" indicating that the position
should be used, and "non-zero" indicating that the position
should used if it is other than (0,0). The latter option is
for working around a bug in older toolkits.
WarpCursor [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into
windows when they are deiconified. If the optional win-list
is given, the pointer will only be warped when those windows
are deiconified.
WindowRing { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows along which the
f.warpring function cycles.
WarpUnmapped
This variable indicates that the f.warpto function should
deiconify any iconified windows it encounters. This is typi-
cally used to make a key binding that will pop a particular
window (such as xmh), no matter where it is. The default is
for f.warpto to ignore iconified windows.
XorValue number
This variable specifies the value to use when drawing window
outlines for moving and resizing. This should be set to a
value that will result in a variety of of distinguishable col-
ors when exclusive-or'ed with the contents of the user's typi-
cal screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice
results if adjacent colors in the default colormap are dis-
tinct. By default, twm will attempt to cause temporary lines
to appear at the opposite end of the colormap from the graph-
ics.
Zoom [ count ]
This variable indicates that outlines suggesting movement of a
window to and from its iconified state should be displayed
whenever a window is iconified or deiconified. The optional
count argument specifies the number of outlines to be drawn.
The default count is 8.
The following variables must be set after the fonts have been
assigned, so it is usually best to put them at the end of the vari-
ables or beginning of the bindings sections:
DefaultFunction function
This variable specifies the function to be executed when a key
or button event is received for which no binding is provided.
This is typically bound to f.nop, f.beep, or a menu containing
window operations.
WindowFunction function
This variable specifies the function to execute when a window
is selected from the TwmWindows menu. If this variable is not
set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
BINDINGS
After the desired variables have been set, functions may be attached
titlebuttons and key and pointer buttons. Titlebuttons may be added
from the left or right side and appear in the titlebar from left-to-
right according to the order in which they are specified. Key and
pointer button bindings may be given in any order.
Titlebuttons specifications must include the name of the pixmap to use
in the button box and the function to be invoked when a pointer button
is pressed within them:
LeftTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
or
RightTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
The bitmapname may refer to one of the built-in bitmaps (which are
scaled to match TitleFont) by using the appropriate colon-prefixed
name described above.
Key and pointer button specifications must give the modifiers that
must be pressed, over which parts of the screen the pointer must be,
and what function is to be invoked. Keys are given as strings con-
taining the appropriate keysym name; buttons are given as the keywords
Button1-Button5:
"FP1" = modlist : context : function
Button1 = modlist : context : function
The modlist is any combination of the modifier names shift, control,
lock, meta, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, or mod5 (which may be abbreviated
as s, c, l, m, m1, m2, m3, m4, m5, respectively) separated by a verti-
cal bar (|). Similarly, the context is any combination of window,
title, icon, root, frame, iconmgr, their first letters (iconmgr abbre-
viation is m), or all, separated by a vertical bar. The function is
any of the f. keywords described below. For example, the default
startup file contains the following bindings:
Button1 = : root : f.menu "TwmWindows"
Button1 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-lower"
Button2 = m : window | icon : f.iconify
Button3 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-raise"
Button1 = : title : f.function "move-or-raise"
Button2 = : title : f.raiselower
Button1 = : icon : f.function "move-or-iconify"
Button2 = : icon : f.iconify
Button1 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
Button2 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
A user who wanted to be able to manipulate windows from the keyboard
could use the following bindings:
"F1" = : all : f.iconify
"F2" = : all : f.raiselower
"F3" = : all : f.warpring "next"
"F4" = : all : f.warpto "xmh"
"F5" = : all : f.warpto "emacs"
"F6" = : all : f.colormap "next"
"F7" = : all : f.colormap "default"
"F20" = : all : f.warptoscreen "next"
"Left" = m : all : f.backiconmgr
"Right" = m | s : all : f.forwiconmgr
"Up" = m : all : f.upiconmgr
"Down" = m | s : all : f.downiconmgr
Twm provides many more window manipulation primitives than can be con-
veniently stored in a titlebar, menu, or set of key bindings.
Although a small set of defaults are supplied (unless the NoDefaults
is specified), most users will want to have their most common opera-
tions bound to key and button strokes. To do this, twm associates
names with each of the primitives and provides user-defined functions
for building higher level primitives and menus for interactively
selecting among groups of functions.
User-defined functions contain the name by which they are referenced
in calls to f.function and a list of other functions to execute. For
example:
Function "move-or-lower" { f.move f.deltastop f.lower }
Function "move-or-raise" { f.move f.deltastop f.raise }
Function "move-or-iconify" { f.move f.deltastop f.iconify }
Function "restore-colormap" { f.colormap "default" f.lower }
The function name must be used in f.function exactly as it appears in
the function specification.
In the descriptions below, if the function is said to operate on the
selected window, but is invoked from a root menu, the cursor will be
changed to the Select cursor and the next window to receive a button
press will be chosen:
! string
This is an abbreviation for f.exec string.
f.autoraise
This function toggles whether or not the selected window is
raised whenever entered by the pointer. See the description
of the variable AutoRaise.
f.backiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous column in the
current icon manager, wrapping back to the previous row if
necessary.
f.beep This function sounds the keyboard bell.
f.bottomzoom
This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, but
resizes the window to fill only the bottom half of the screen.
f.circledown
This function lowers the top-most window that occludes another
window.
f.circleup
This function raises the bottom-most window that is occluded
by another window.
f.colormap string
This function rotates the colormaps (obtained from the WM_COL-
ORMAP_WINDOWS property on the window) that twm will display
when the pointer is in this window. The argument string may
have one of the following values: "next", "prev", and
"default". It should be noted here that in general, the
installed colormap is determined by keyboard focus. A pointer
driven keyboard focus will install a private colormap upon
entry of the window owning the colormap. Using the click to
type model, private colormaps will not be installed until the
user presses a mouse button on the target window.
f.deiconify
This function deiconifies the selected window. If the window
is not an icon, this function does nothing.
f.delete
This function sends the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message to the
selected window if the client application has requested it
through the WM_PROTOCOLS window property. The application is
supposed to respond to the message by removing the indicated
window. If the window has not requested WM_DELETE_WINDOW mes-
sages, the keyboard bell will be rung indicating that the user
should choose an alternative method. Note this is very dif-
ferent from f.destroy. The intent here is to delete a single
window, not necessarily the entire application.
f.deltastop
This function allows a user-defined function to be aborted if
the pointer has been moved more than MoveDelta pixels. See
the example definition given for Function "move-or-raise" at
the beginning of the section.
f.destroy
This function instructs the X server to close the display con-
nection of the client that created the selected window. This
should only be used as a last resort for shutting down runaway
clients. See also f.delete.
f.downiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next row in the current
icon manger, wrapping to the beginning of the next column if
necessary.
f.exec string
This function passes the argument string to /bin/sh for execu-
tion. In multiscreen mode, if string starts a new X client
without giving a display argument, the client will appear on
the screen from which this function was invoked.
f.focus This function toggles the keyboard focus of the server to the
selected window, changing the focus rule from pointer-driven
if necessary. If the selected window already was focused,
this function executes an f.unfocus.
f.forcemove
This function is like f.move except that it ignores the Dont-
MoveOff variable.
f.forwiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next column in the cur-
rent icon manager, wrapping to the beginning of the next row
if necessary.
f.fullzoom
This function resizes the selected window to the full size of
the display or else restores the original size if the window
was already zoomed.
f.function string
This function executes the user-defined function whose name is
specified by the argument string.
f.hbzoom
This function is a synonym for f.bottomzoom.
f.hideiconmgr
This function unmaps the current icon manager.
f.horizoom
This variable is similar to the f.zoom function except that
the selected window is resized to the full width of the dis-
play.
f.htzoom
This function is a synonym for f.topzoom.
f.hzoom This function is a synonym for f.horizoom.
f.iconify
This function iconifies or deiconifies the selected window or
icon, respectively.
f.identify
This function displays a summary of the name and geometry of
the selected window. If the server supports the SYNC exten-
sion, the priority of the client owning the window is also
displayed. Clicking the pointer or pressing a key in the win-
dow will dismiss it.
f.lefticonmgr
This function similar to f.backiconmgr except that wrapping
does not change rows.
f.leftzoom
This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function but
causes the selected window is only resized to the left half of
the display.
f.lower This function lowers the selected window.
f.menu string
This function invokes the menu specified by the argument
string. Cascaded menus may be built by nesting calls to
f.menu.
f.move This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the
window itself if the OpaqueMove variable is set) until the
invoking pointer button is released. Double clicking within
the number of milliseconds given by ConstrainedMoveTime warps
the pointer to the center of the window and constrains the
move to be either horizontal or vertical depending on which
grid line is crossed. To abort a move, press another button
before releasing the first button.
f.nexticonmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next icon manager con-
taining any windows on the current or any succeeding screen.
f.nop This function does nothing and is typically used with the
DefaultFunction or WindowFunction variables or to introduce
blank lines in menus.
f.previconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous icon manager
containing any windows on the current or preceding screens.
f.priority string
This function sets the priority of the client owning the
selected window to the numeric value of the argument string,
which should be a signed integer in double quotes (e.g. "999"
). This function has an effect only if the server supports
the SYNC extension.
f.quit This function causes twm to restore the window's borders and
exit. If twm is the first client invoked from xdm, this will
result in a server reset.
f.raise This function raises the selected window.
f.raiselower
This function raises the selected window to the top of the
stacking order if it is occluded by any windows, otherwise the
window will be lowered.
f.refresh
This function causes all windows to be refreshed.
f.resize
This function displays an outline of the selected window.
Crossing a border (or setting AutoRelativeResize) will cause
the outline to begin to rubber band until the invoking button
is released. To abort a resize, press another button before
releasing the first button.
f.restart
This function kills and restarts twm.
f.startwm string
This function kills twm and starts another window manager, as
specified by string.
f.righticonmgr
This function is similar to f.nexticonmgr except that wrapping
does not change rows.
f.rightzoom
This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
that the selected window is only resized to the right half of
the display.
f.saveyourself
This function sends a WM_SAVEYOURSELF message to the selected
window if it has requested the message in its WM_PROTOCOLS
window property. Clients that accept this message are sup-
posed to checkpoint all state associated with the window and
update the WM_COMMAND property as specified in the ICCCM. If
the selected window has not selected for this message, the
keyboard bell will be rung.
f.showiconmgr
This function maps the current icon manager.
f.sorticonmgr
This function sorts the entries in the current icon manager
alphabetically. See the variable SortIconManager.
f.title This function provides a centered, unselectable item in a menu
definition. It should not be used in any other context.
f.topzoom
This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
that the selected window is only resized to the top half of
the display.
f.unfocus
This function resets the focus back to pointer-driven. This
should be used when a focused window is no longer desired.
f.upiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous row in the
current icon manager, wrapping to the last row in the same
column if necessary.
f.vlzoom
This function is a synonym for f.leftzoom.
f.vrzoom
This function is a synonym for f.rightzoom.
f.warpring string
This function warps the pointer to the next or previous window
(as indicated by the argument string, which may be "next" or
"prev") specified in the WindowRing variable.
f.warpto string
This function warps the pointer to the window which has a name
or class that matches string. If the window is iconified, it
will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or
else ignored.
f.warptoiconmgr string
This function warps the pointer to the icon manager entry
associated with the window containing the pointer in the icon
manager specified by the argument string. If string is empty
(i.e. ""), the current icon manager is chosen.
f.warptoscreen string
This function warps the pointer to the screen specified by the
argument string. String may be a number (e.g. "0" or "1"),
the word "next" (indicating the current screen plus 1, skip-
ping over any unmanaged screens), the word "back" (indicating
the current screen minus 1, skipping over any unmanaged
screens), or the word "prev" (indicating the last screen vis-
ited.
f.winrefresh
This function is similar to the f.refresh function except that
only the selected window is refreshed.
f.zoom This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, except
that the only the height of the selected window is changed.
MENUS
Functions may be grouped and interactively selected using pop-up (when
bound to a pointer button) or pull-down (when associated with a title-
button) menus. Each menu specification contains the name of the menu
as it will be referred to by f.menu, optional default foreground and
background colors, the list of item names and the functions they
should invoke, and optional foreground and background colors for indi-
vidual items:
Menu "menuname" [ ("deffore":"defback") ]
{
string1 [ ("fore1":"backn")] function1
string2 [ ("fore2":"backn")] function2
.
.
.
stringN [ ("foreN":"backN")] functionN
}
The menuname is case-sensitive. The optional deffore and defback
arguments specify the foreground and background colors used on a color
display to highlight menu entries. The string portion of each menu
entry will be the text which will appear in the menu. The optional
fore and back arguments specify the foreground and background colors
of the menu entry when the pointer is not in the entry. These colors
will only be used on a color display. The default is to use the col-
ors specified by the MenuForeground and MenuBackground variables. The
function portion of the menu entry is one of the functions, including
any user-defined functions, or additional menus.
There is a special menu named TwmWindows which contains the names of
all of the client and twm-supplied windows. Selecting an entry will
cause the WindowFunction to be executed on that window. If Window-
Function hasn't been set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
ICONS
Twm supports several different ways of manipulating iconified windows.
The common pixmap-and-text style may be laid out by hand or automati-
cally arranged as described by the IconRegion variable. In addition,
a terse grid of icon names, called an icon manager, provides a more
efficient use of screen space as well as the ability to navigate among
windows from the keyboard.
An icon manager is a window that contains names of selected or all
windows currently on the display. In addition to the window name, a
small button using the default iconify symbol will be displayed to the
left of the name when the window is iconified. By default, clicking
on an entry in the icon manager performs f.iconify. To change the
actions taken in the icon manager, use the the iconmgr context when
specifying button and keyboard bindings.
Moving the pointer into the icon manager also directs keyboard focus
to the indicated window (setting the focus explicitly or else sending
synthetic events NoTitleFocus is set). Using the f.upiconmgr, f.down-
iconmgr f.lefticonmgr, and f.righticonmgr functions, the input focus
can be changed between windows directly from the keyboard.
BUGS
The resource manager should have been used instead of all of the win-
dow lists.
The IconRegion variable should take a list.
Double clicking very fast to get the constrained move function will
sometimes cause the window to move, even though the pointer is not
moved.
If IconifyByUnmapping is on and windows are listed in IconManager-
DontShow but not in DontIconifyByUnmapping, they may be lost if they
are iconified and no bindings to f.menu "TwmWindows" or f.warpto are
setup.
FILES
$HOME/.twmrc.
$HOME/.twmrc
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY This variable is used to determine which X server to use. It
is also set during f.exec so that programs come up on the
proper screen.
HOME This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with
a tilde and for locating the twm startup file.
SEE ALSO
X(7x), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xrdb(1)
AUTHORS
Tom LaStrange, Solbourne Computer; Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium; Steve
Pitschke, Stardent Computer; Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium; Dave
Sternlicht, MIT X Consortium; Dave Payne, Apple Computer.
TWM(1)
UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page: