\fBfluxbox(1)\fR is a window manager\&. As such it provides configurable window decorations, a root menu to launch applications and a toolbar that shows the current workspace name, a set of application names and the current time\&. There is also a workspace menu to add or remove workspaces\&.
Fluxbox can iconify (or minimize) windows to the toolbar One click and they reappear\&. A double\-click on the titlebar of the window will \fIshade\fR it; i\&.e\&. the window will disappear, and only the titlebar will remain visible\&.
There are also two areas commonly used by small applets: the \(oqslit\(cq can be used to dock small applications; e\&.g\&. most of the \(lqbbtools\(rq and \(lqWindow Maker dockapps\(rq can use the slit, and the \(oqsystray\(cq which lives in the toolbar supports standard system tray icons provided by some applications\&.
Fluxbox uses its own graphics class to render its images on the fly\&. By using style files, you can determine in great detail how your desktop looks\&. fluxbox styles are compatible with those of Blackbox 0\&.65 or earlier versions, so users migrating can still use their current favourite themes\&.
Most of the default keyboard and mouse button actions mentioned in this manual can be changed and configured in the \(oqkeys\(cq file\&. This powerful configuration file can also be used to automate almost any action you may want to perform, from launching applications to moving windows around the screen\&. See \fBfluxbox\-keys(5)\fR for details\&.
Fluxbox can also remember certain attributes of individual application windows and restore these settings the next time the window opens\&. See the \fBfluxbox\-apps(5)\fR for details\&.
.sp
Fluxbox supports the majority of the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification, as well as numerous other Window Hinting standards\&. This allows all compliant window managers to provide a common interface to standard features used by applications and desktop utilities\&.
\fBfluxbox(1)\fR comes with a program called \fBstartfluxbox(1)\fR usually located wherever you installed fluxbox\&. This script provides you with many options and variables that can be set when starting fluxbox\&. To actually call fluxbox and begin using it, you should place \(lqexec startfluxbox\(rq in your \fB~/\&.xinitrc\fR as the last executed command\&. This is assuming that the location of \fBfluxbox(1)\fR and \fBstartfluxbox(1)\fR are in your shell\(cqs $PATH\&. Also note that you may need to create the \fB~/\&.xinitrc\fR file or your setup may use \fB~/\&.xsession\fR instead, depending on your X setup\&. Some X login managers like \fBgdm(1)\fR or \fBkdm(1)\fR may simply provide a \(lqFluxbox\(rq session for you without having to alter any settings\&.
By using fluxbox \-i you\(cqll see the defaults used by \fBfluxbox(1)\fR\&. These are what fluxbox looks for upon startup\&. In the list of \(lqDefaults:\(rq you\(cqll see a menu file location, this is where you can provide a system\-wide menu file for your users\&.
On exit or restart, fluxbox will save user defaults in the file \fB~/\&.fluxbox/init\fR\&. Resources in this file can also be edited by hand, see the \fBRESOURCES\fR section for more details\&. \fBfluxbox(1)\fR also has many tools to edit these; look through the main menu once fluxbox has started to find different ways of managing your session\&.
When using fluxbox for the first time, users who are more accustomed to full desktop environments such as KDE or Gnome may be a little surprised by the minimal screen content\&. fluxbox is designed to be fast and powerful, so it may take a bit of getting used to \(em however, the rewards are worthwhile\&.
In this section, we\(cqll give a quick summary of the common things\&. However, we recommend that you consult the referenced sections of this manual to further develop your understanding of what you can do with fluxbox\&.
Looking at the fluxbox desktop immediately after startup you\(cqll generally see only one thing: the toolbar\&. If you right\-click (mouse button 3) somewhere on the desktop, you can access the Root Menu\&. A middle\-click (mouse button 2) on the desktop shows you the Workspace Menu\&.
From the RootMenu you can launch applications and configure fluxbox\&. The WorkspaceMenu shows all windows and on which workspaces they are\&. See section \fBMENUS\fR on how to customize these menus\&.
Initially you won\(cqt be able to see the slit\&. It is there, but it isn\(cqt being used yet, which confuses some people initially\&. Think of it as a dock where you can place smaller programs\&. If you\(cqve looked at any screenshots on the official fluxbox web site, you will have noticed some small programs on the edge of some of the screens\&. These were more than likely docked programs in the slit\&. To learn more about the slit, we have an entire \fBSLIT\fR section below that goes into detail about the options you have\&.
Windows on a higher layer will always appear above those on a lower one\&. These layers can be used on application windows, the slit or the toolbar\&. You can assign applications to a certain layer by specifying it in the \(oqapps\(cq file or through the WindowMenu\&. We discuss the \(oqapps\(cq file in \fBfluxbox\-apps(5)\fR\&. We discuss the WindowMenu in the \fBMENUS\fR section\&. We discuss layers in more detail in the \fBLAYERS\fR section\&.
The window that has the focus is the one that receives key and mouse events\&. The focus model is selectable via the Configuration menu located in the root menu\&. We\(cqll discuss the different types of focus below in the \fBFOCUS MODEL\fR section\&.
A left\-click (mouse button 1) on any part of the window\(cqs border will raise it\&. Dragging then moves the window to another part of the desktop\&. A right click and drag on the border resizes the window\&. Dragging the resize grips at the left and right bottom corners also will resize the window\&. Middle clicking on a border or titlebar will immediately lower the window\&. Right clicking on the titlebar opens the Window menu\&. The commands unique to this menu are discussed in detail in the \fBWindow Menu\fR section\&.
fluxbox allows windows to be \(oqgrouped\(cq by middle clicking and holding on a window\(cqs tab and dragging it onto another window\&. This \(oqtabbing\(cq allows you to put multiple applications in one location on the desktop and do several operations (for example, moving or resizing) to all windows in the group\&. By default, tabs are located just above the window, but they may be embedded in the titlebar or moved to other locations on the outside of the window\&. Configuration is discussed in TAB OPTIONS section\&.
There are a number of key bindings set up by default, which can be configured and extended to just about anything you can imagine with the keyboard\&. See \fBfluxbox\-keys(5)\fR for details on how to do this\&.
When a menu is open, you can click on items with the mouse to activate them\&. Some special menu items react slightly differently depending on the mouse button you use, but normally you will want to use a left\-click (button 1)\&.
You can also use the the keyboard arrow key to navigate, or even type the first few letters of the item\(cqs label to select it, and \(lqenter\(rq to activate the item\&.
Normally activating a menu item should close the menu\&. You can also right\-click the title are of a menu or press \(lqesc\(rq to close it without activating an item\&.
.SS"Root Menu"
.sp
The root menu is where you can launch commonly\-used applications and change different aspects of fluxbox by simply clicking on a menu item\&. By default it is opened by a right\-click on the empty area of the desktop\&.
.sp
The contents of this menu can be configured, see \fBfluxbox\-menu(5)\fR for details\&.
.sp
The default menu, which is created by the \(lqfluxbox\-generate_menu\(rq command, contains menus for installed applications, as well as a special \(lqFluxbox menu\(rq item with the items detailed below:
This is where the standard styles are listed\&. You can select one of these by clicking on it, and it will be applied immediately\&. System styles are located in
\fB@pkgdatadir@/styles/\fR
upon a default install\&. Remember that you can confirm this with fluxbox \-i\&.
Restart the whole darn thing\&. This starts a completely new fluxbox process, rereads files and redraws all graphical elements\&. Running applications will remain open, however, and restored to the same workspaces they were previously in once fluxbox returns\&.
This menu offers the opportunity to set up fluxbox\&. It contains many options which can be altered manually in the \(oqinit\(cq file, but this is an easier and faster way to change the most common settings\&.
Normally, a maximized window will not overlap the toolbar, slit, or any docked windows (like panels)\&. Enabling this option allows maximized windows to be as large as the actual screen resolution\&.
Normally, terminal windows specify a \(lqresize increment\(rq which mean fluxbox will only resize the window to an even multiple of the character size\&. Enabling this option will ignore this specification when maximizing\&.
This sets the default transparency for a focused windows, unfocused window and the menu\&. Use the left mouse button to decrease and the right mouse button to increase the value\&. 0 is invisible, 255 is not transparent at all\&.
option will force fluxbox to ignore the xcomposite extension and use pseudo\-transparency instead of true transparency\&. Note: When pseudo\-transparency is on, the transparency values here only affect titlebars, not window contents\&.
If enabled, you can drag windows from one workspace to another\&. There are parameters to set independently whether this warping happens horizontally and/or vertically, and in each direction you can set the number of workspaces to jump when warping (to allow for a virtual rectangular grid of workspaces)\&. When warping, lower\-numbered workspaces are above/to the left, and higher\-numbered workspaces below/to the right\&.
Send window to another workspace\&. When you select the workspace with a middle click, fluxbox will send you along with the application to the selected workspace\&.
(Un)Maximize window\&. Depending on your toolbar and slit configuration, maximize may cover them\&. You can use the different mouse buttons for different aspects of maximize function\&.
Iconify (or minimize) a window\&. The \(oqicon\(cq can be found in the Icons submenu of the workspace menu as well as in the toolbar (if a Toolbar mode showing Icons is selected)\&.
is selected, fluxbox will jump to the appropriate workspace when this window is opened there\&. If not selected, the window will open in the background\&.
The workspace menu can be found, by default, by middle\-clicking on the background\&. This menu contains entries to explore the currently defined workspaces, windows, and add/remove/rename workspaces\&.
The next section provides one submenu per workspace\&. Middle\-clicking on a workspace name will take you to that workspace\&. The submenu contains a list of all open windows on that workspace\&. Clicking on a window name will take you to that window and raise it, changing the active workspace if necessary\&.
The toolbar is a small area to display information like a clock, workspace name, a system tray or a taskbar (iconbar) that can contain the running programs\&. The color, look, font etc\&. is defined in the \fBSTYLE\fR\&.
The tools in the toolbar can be enabled/disabled in the \(oqinit\(cq file with the \fBsession\&.screen0\&.toolbar\&.tools\fR resource\&. See the \fBRESOURCES\fR section for details on how to alter this value\&.
This is the area that contains all windows (all running applications, all minimized windows or maybe no window, all depending on the Toolbar Settings)\&.
This displays the name of the current workspace\&. Also, one is able to switch to the workspace left of the current one with a left click and to the workspace right of the current one with a right click\&.
Other aspects of the toolbar can be configured in two ways: through the toolbar menu, which is accessible in the Configuration part of the RootMenu or with a middle click on the edge the toolbar, or by editing the init file (see the \fBRESOURCES\fR section for more information about that)\&.
If this is enabled the toolbar will disappear after a defined time when the mouse pointer leaves the toolbar\&. It will slide in when the cursor hits the remaining edge of the toolbar\&. See the
If this is enabled the toolbar will elevate after a defined time when the mouse pointer enters the it\&. It will fall back when the cursor leaves the toolbar\&. See the
Sets the width of the toolbar in a percentage of your total screen size\&. Use the left mouse button to decrease and the right mouse\-button to increase the value\&. The value can be from 1\-100\&.
Enabling this option will allow windows to maximize over the toolbar\&. With this switched on they will only expand to the edge of the bar\&. This option may be overridden by the \(lqFull Maximization\(rq from the
\fBConfiguration Menu\fR\&. If that option is enabled, this option will have no effect\&.\&.
This sets the alpha value for the toolbar\&. Use the left mouse button to decrease and the right mouse button to increase the value\&. 0 is invisible, 255 is not transparent at all\&.
The Focus Model defines how windows gain focus (i\&.e\&. become the active window, which receives keyboard and mouse events)\&. The focus model can be changed in the configuration menu (usually located under \fIfluxbox menu\fR in the Root Menu\&.
.sp
There are two main aspects of the focus model: how windows gain focus and how tabs gain focus\&. Each of these has two options: focus follows mouse and click to focus\&. Focus follows mouse means that windows will gain focus when the mouse hovers over them\&. Click to focus means that windows will gain focus when the mouse clicks on them\&.
Like Mouse Focus, but no mouse movement is required, ie\&. the window is also focused if it moves below the mouse, eg\&. because it shows up or you change the virtual desktop\&.
If enabled, a new window will grab X focus as soon as it is opened\&.
.PP
\fBAuto Raise\fR
.RS4
If enabled, focusing on a new window will automatically raise that window above all others within its layer\&. When disabled, you must explicitly raise a focused window using the window menu, keybinding, or
\fBClick Raises\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBClick Raises\fR
.RS4
If enabled, clicking anywhere on a window will raise it above all others within its layer\&.
When this option is on, maximizing a window will disregard the size and location of external tabs, which means they may be pushed out of the screen entirely\&.
This specifies in pixels the width of external tabs\&.
.RE
.SH"STYLES"
.sp
fluxbox enables you to use specialized files that contain \fBX(1)\fR resources to specify colors, textures, pixmaps and fonts, and thus the overall look of your window borders, menus and the toolbar\&.
.sp
The default installation of fluxbox provides some of these style files\&. See \fBfluxbox\-style(5)\fR to accommodate the growing number of style components\&.
In addition to the style file, the overlay file, whose location is specified by \fBsession\&.screen0\&.styleOverlay\fR (default: \fB~/\&.fluxbox/overlay\fR) can be used to set style resources that override all styles\&. For more information about which parts of fluxbox can be controlled by the overlay file, see \fBfluxbox\-style(5)\fR\&.
The slit is a special fluxbox window frame that can contain dockable applications, such as \(lqbbtools\(rq or \(lqwindow maker dockapps\(rq\&.
.sp
When applications are run in the slit they have no window borders of their own; instead they are framed in the slit, and they are always visible in the current workspace\&.
If this is enabled the slit will disappear after a defined time when the mouse pointer leaves the slit\&. It will slide in when the cursor hits the remaining edge of the slit\&. See the
If this is enabled the slit will elevate after a defined time when the mouse pointer enters the it\&. It will fall back when the cursor leaves the slit\&. See the
Enabling this option will allow windows to maximizing over the slit\&. With this switched off they will only expand to the edge of the slit\&. This option may be overridden by the \(lqFull Maximization\(rq from the
\fBConfiguration Menu\fR\&. If that option is enabled, this option will have no effect\&.\&.
This sets the alpha value for the slit\&. Use the left mouse button to decrease and the right mouse button to increase the value\&. 0 is invisible, 255 is not transparent at all\&.
This submenu lets you reorder the the applications running in the slit\&. You are able to hide apps from the slit by unselecting them in the list showing\&. This will not kill the app\&. You can make them re\-appear by selecting them in the list\&. The "Save SlitList" option saves the new order to you slitlist located in
fluxbox\(cqs slitlist file is available for those that use dockapps in the slit\&. This file helps fluxbox keep track of the \fBorder\fR of the dockapps when in the slit\&. The file is generally located at \fB~/\&.fluxbox/slitlist\fR\&.
A simple procedure for getting the slit sequences the way you like it is: 1\&. Run fluxbox with no pre\-loaded dockapps 2\&. Run dockapps individually in the order you want them 3\&. Add dockapps to your \fBstartfluxbox(1)\fR script
Users are free to manually edit the slitlist file\&. It is a simple list of window names, as given by \fBxprop(1)\fR, one per dockapp\&. Similar to the init file it should not be edited while fluxbox is running\&. Otherwise changes may get overwritten\&.
.sp
The user also has the option of choosing a different path for the slitlist file, by setting the \fBsession\&.session0\&.slitlistFile\fR resource\&.
Layers affect the way that windows will overlap each other on the screen\&. Windows on a higher layer will always appear above those on a lower one, whether they are focused or not\&. Fluxbox uses 13 layers, starting from 1 (highest)\&.
There are two ways to assign a window to a different layer\&. When the window is open, you may select the layer in the \(oqLayer \&...\(cq submenu of the window menu\&. The menu gives six choices for the layer, which fluxbox manages by name\&. The names are (from highest to lowest layer):
Usually the \fB~/\&.fluxbox/init\fR resource file is created and maintained by fluxbox itself\&. You can use the \fBConfigure Menu\fR, mentioned above, to set most of these options\&. However, we\(cqll cover all of the resource options that are available to the user\&. If you edit this file while fluxbox is running, you must \(lqreconfigure\(rq to reload the resource options\&.
When running fluxbox in a multiple\-screen environment the screen0 key can also be screen1, screen2, to customize the behavior of fluxbox on each desktop accordingly\&. Here are the resources that are currently available:
These resources are available to the user to set different levels of transparency for different components of fluxbox\&. Each one accepts a value between 0\-255, 255 being opaque and 0 being completely transparent\&.
The autoHide resources allow the user to set the behavior of the toolbar and slit\&. This behavior can be that they disappear when they are not being used actively by the user, or they remain visible at all times\&.
If enabled, the respective item will elevate to the AboveDock layer when entered and fall back to its regular layer when left\&. Notice that this does
\fBnot\fR
implicitly alter the items regular layer or the workspace padding, ie\&. if the item is already set to AboveDock this does nothing and if a mximized window completely covers the item you won\(cqt be able to enter, thus elevate it\&.
With these two resources, you can set the layer you want the toolbar and the slit to appear on\&. Please read the LAYER section for more information\&.
Setting these to True will allow application windows to maximize over the complete screen\&. Setting to False allows the slit, toolbar, and external tabs to hold their territory and will always be visible when an application is maximized\&.
Set the height of the toolbar\&. If the value is set to 0, the style file will gain control over the toolbar height\&. It is possible to set a fixed height by changing this value to something greater than 0\&.
This resource specifies the tools plugged into the toolbar\&. Read the TOOLBAR section in this manual for a description of each of these\&. They may be specified in any order, delimited by the
\fB,\fR
character\&. They will appear in the order given\&.
For those that use xinerama, users can set this value to the number of the head where they would like to see the slit and toolbar, starting from 1\&. Setting this to 0 will ignore xinerama information\&.
This controls how windows gain focus via the mouse\&. With \(oqClickToFocus\(cq, the user must click on the window\&. With \(oqMouseFocus\(cq, windows gain focus whenever the mouse moves over them, but only when the mouse is moving\&. With \(oqStrictMouseFocus\(cq, windows gain focus whenever the mouse enters any exposed area, even if this is due to layer changes, window movement, changing desktops, closing windows, etc\&.
Setting this resource to True shows the user, in a little window, the exact position of the application window while the user is dragging it\&. Allows a precise placement of windows on a screen\&.
Here is where the user can name their workspaces, in a comma\-delimited list\&. However it is recommended to use the tool available in the Workspace Menu to set these\&.
When moving a window across your screen, fluxbox is able to have it \(oqsnap\(cq to the edges of the screen and other windows for easy placement\&. This variable tells fluxbox the distance (in pixels) at which the window will jump to the edge\&.
When resizing a window by grabbing a corner, fluxbox is able to have it \(oqsnap\(cq to the edges of the screen and other windows for easy placement\&. This variable tells fluxbox the distance (in pixels) at which the window will jump to the edge\&.
If this setting is enabled, windows will maximize over the toolbar, slit, and any other window that creates a strut, no matter what their individual settings are\&.
When moving a window, setting this to True will draw the window contents as it moves (this is nasty on slow systems)\&. If False, it will only draw an outline of the window border\&.
When resizing a window, setting this to True will draw the window contents as it resizes (this is nasty on slow systems)\&. If False, it will only draw an outline of the window border\&.
When resizing a window in opaque mode, this controls the resize clock pulse in ms\&. Low values resize "smoother" but slow clients (browser etc\&. which are expensive to resize) can put too much stress on the system (stalling everything) High values will cause notable latency (delay before the size is aligned to the mouse position)
Shrink the workspace by left, right, top, bottom pixels (positive integers) This allows you to add some padding to the workspace eg\&. to keep a fraction of the desktop visible against maximized windows\&. session\&.screen0\&.struts\&.<n> allows to control this for individual heads (<n> starts counting at 1)
A colon delimited list of commands, executed when the respective mouse button is pressed on the toolbar button tool "button\&.<name>" The commands are the same as those detailed in
This tells fluxbox how much memory it may use to store cached pixmaps on the X server\&. If your machine runs short of memory, you may lower this value\&.
.sp
Default:
\fB200\fR
.RE
.PP
\fBsession\&.colorsPerChannel\fR: \fIinteger\fR
.RS4
This tells fluxbox how many colors to take from the X server on pseudo\-color displays\&. A channel would be red, green, or blue\&. fluxbox will allocate this variable ^ 3 and make them always available\&. Value must be between 2\-6\&. When you run fluxbox on an 8bpp display, you must set this resource to 4\&.
If you have Xorg\(cqs composite extension enabled, this setting will force the menu, windows, toolbar, and slit to use pseudo\-transparency instead of true transparency\&.
With this set to \(oqWindow\(cq, windows may be grouped by dragging one tab with the middle mouse button and dropping it anywhere on another window\&. With \(oqTitlebar\(cq, the user must drop the tab on the target window\(cqs titlebar\&.
Consider a system tray "A C B D E F"\&. With pinRight set to "A, B" and pinLeft set to "E, F" it will look like "E F [C D] A B" while the icons in [] are unordered as usual\&.
All of the \fIlocation\fR resources following require a pathname to their specific files\&. This is where you can specify different files\&. Most of the defaults will be located in the user\(cqs \fB~/\&.fluxbox\fR directory\&.
fluxbox can also take advantage of other environment variables if they are set before fluxbox is started\&. For example, if $TERM is set, then it will be available whenever fluxbox uses the shell, such as the \(oqkeys\(cq file \fBExecCommand\fR or the root menu\(cqs \fB[exec]\fR tag\&. See \fBfluxbox\-keys(5)\fR and \fBfluxbox\-menu(5)\fR for details\&.
The \(oqkeys\(cq file also provides two commands that can alter the current environment of fluxbox: \fBSetEnv\fR and \fBExport\fR\&. Any changes made by these commands will also affect the environment as seen by fluxbox and all child processes started after that point\&. See \fBfluxbox\-keys(5)\fR for details\&.
fluxbox is written and maintained by Henrik Kinnunen <fluxgen at fluxbox org>, Simon Bowden <rathnor at fluxbox org>, Mathias Gumz <akira at fluxbox org>, and Mark Tiefenbruck <mark at fluxbox org>, with contributions and patches merged from many individuals around the world\&.
If you find any bugs, please visit the #fluxbox irc channel on irc\&.freenode\&.net or submit them to the bug tracker at \m[blue]\fBhttp://sf\&.net/projects/fluxbox\fR\m[]\&. Or you may subscribe to one of the mailinglists\&. More information can be found on the official website\&.
