fluxbox(1) 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\. The `slit\' can be used to dock small applications; e\.g\. most of the bbtools can use the slit\.
fluxbox(1) can iconify windows to the toolbar, in addition to adding the window to the \fIIcons\fR submenu of the workspace menu\. 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\.
fluxbox(1) 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\.
fluxbox(1) 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\.
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.SH"OPTIONS"
.PP
\-display display
.RS4
Start fluxbox on the specified display\. Programs started by fluxbox will share the DISPLAY environment variable also\.
.RE
.PP
\-h, \-help
.RS4
Display command line options\.
.RE
.PP
\-i, \-info
.RS4
Display useful information concerning the defaults and compiled\-in options\.
.RE
.PP
\-log logfile
.RS4
Starting fluxbox with this option will designate a file in which you want to log events to\.
fluxbox(1) comes with a program called startfluxbox(8) 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 "exec startfluxbox" in your /\.xinitrc or /\.xsession (depending on your distribution and/or display manager) as the last executed command\. This is assuming that the location of fluxbox(1) and startfluxbox(8) are in your shell\'s $PATH\. Also note that you may need to create the /\.xinitrc file or your setup may use /\.xsession instead, depending on your X setup\. For more information on your shell, please visit your shell\'s manual page\.
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By using fluxbox \-i you\'ll see the defaults used by fluxbox(1)\. These are what fluxbox looks for upon startup\. In the list of `Defaults:\' you\'ll 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 ~/\.fluxbox/init\. Resources in this file can be edited by hand\. fluxbox 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\'ll 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\'ll generally see only one thing: the toolbar\. If you right click (mouse button 3) somewhere on the desktop, you can access the RootMenu\. A middle click (mouse button 2) on the desktop shows you the WorkspaceMenu\.
From the RootMenu you can launch applications and configure fluxbox\. The WorkspaceMenu shows all windows and on which workspaces they are\. See section MENUS on how to customize these menus\.
Initially you won\'t be able to see the slit\. It is there, but it isn\'t being used yet\. The slit confuses some people initially\. Think of it as a dock where you can place smaller programs\. If you\'ve 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 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 `apps\' file or through the WindowMenu\. We discuss the `apps\' file in the APPLICATIONS section\. We discuss the WindowMenu in the MENUS section\. We discuss layers in more detail in the LAYERS 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\'ll discuss the different types of focus below in the FOCUS MODEL section\.
A left click (mouse button 1) on any part of the window\'s 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 Window Menu section of MENUS\.
fluxbox allows windows to be `grouped\' by middle clicking and holding on a window\'s tab and dragging it onto another window\. This `tabbing\' 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\.
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.SH"MENUS"
fluxbox installs a default menu file in @pkgdatadir@/menu\. You can also use fluxbox \-i to confirm this action\. Of course this system\-wide menu can be customized for all users at once, but it is also possible to create an individual menu file for each user\. By convention, users create a menu file in ~/\.fluxbox/menu \. Once you\'ve created your own menu file, you\'ll want to make sure that you properly declare this location in your `init\' file so that fluxbox knows where to look\. The value you\'ll want to add or change is:
For this change to take effect, fluxbox must be restarted\. Be sure that your menu is usable, then choose `Restart\' from the default fluxbox root menu\. This restart is only necessary if you make changes to the `init\' file; otherwise, fluxbox will automatically detect your changes\.
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.SS"Root Menu"
The root menu is where you can change different aspects of fluxbox by simply clicking on a menu item\. Most of the changes in this menu can also be done in the `init\' file\. However it makes it very easy to change certain options without having to open up an editor and find the resource\. In the root menu, you usually have a `fluxbox menu\' or `Settings\' submenu, where you will find lots of different options\. We\'ll take a look at most, if not all, of those here\.
\fBConfigure\fR: The next level under this menu is where you can set certain resources and really begin to customize the look and feel of your desktop\.
\fBSystem Styles\fR: This is where the standard styles are listed\. You can select one of these by clicking on it\. You may have to `reload\' the config or `restart\' to get every graphical element to change to the new style\. System styles are located in @pkgdatadir@/styles/ upon a default install\. Remember that you can confirm this with fluxbox \-i\.
\fBUser Styles\fR: ~/\.fluxbox/styles This is the location where you will store new styles that you grab from the Internet\. If you create your own styles this is also where you will put yours (provided that you follow the
\fBWorkspace List\fR: This is a list of the workspaces configured in your `init\' file\. If there are programs running on any of the workspaces, they will be listed one level down\.
\fBTools\fR: Listed here are different tools that you can use\. You can rename your workspace, run programs from a command line or regenerate your menu\.
\fBRestart\fR: 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\.
This menu offers the opportunity to set up fluxbox\. It contains many options from the init file, but this is an easier and faster way for most users\.
\fBFull Maximization\fR: Enabling this will override the separate settings for the slit/toolbar\. Windows will always maximize over/under both of them\.
\fBClick Raises\fR: If enabled a click anywhere on a window area (including the decorations) will raise it\. Otherwise you can only raise it by clicking the titlebar\.
\fBSend To\&...\fR: 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\.
\fBIconify\fR: Iconify window\. The `icon\' 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)\.
\fBMaximize\fR: (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\.
The workspace menu can be found by middle clicking on the background\. A menu will popup giving you the option to add or remove a workspace\. You will also see your workspaces listed there; middle clicking on a workspace name will take you to that workspace, whereas clicking on a window name in one of the per\-workspace submenus will take you to the workspace that window is on, and select the window\. Last but not least you will notice the Icons menu\. This is for applications which have been `iconified\'\.
This tells fluxbox to start parsing the menu file\. This tag is required for fluxbox to read your menu file\. If it cannot find it, the system default menu is used in its place\.
This tells fluxbox that it is at the end of a menu\. This can either be a submenu or the main root menu\. There must be at least one of these tags in your menu to correspond to the required [begin] tag\.
Parses the file specified by filename inline with the current menu\. The filename can be the full path to a file or it can begin with ~/, which will be expanded into your home directory\. If the path is a directory, then all files in the directory are included\.
Insert a non\-operational item into the current menu\. This can be used to help format the menu into blocks or sections if so desired\. This tag does support a label, but one is not required in which case a blank item will be used instead\.
This tells fluxbox to insert an item that, when selected, reads style file named filename and apply the new textures, colors and fonts to the current running session\.
Reads all filenames from the specified directory, assuming that they are all valid style files, and creates menu items in the current menu for every filename, that, when selected by the user will apply the selected style file to the current session\. The labels that are created in the menu are the filenames of the style files\.
Creates a submenu entry with label (that is also the title of the new submenu), and inserts in that submenu all filenames in the specified directory, assuming that they are all valid style files (directories are ignored) in the same way as the [stylesdir] command does\. Both [stylesdir] and [stylesmenu] commands make it possible to install style files without editing your init file\.
This tells fluxbox to create and parse a new menu\. This menu is inserted as a submenu into the parent menu\. These menus are parsed recursively, so there is no limit to the number of levels or nested submenus you can have\. The title for the new menu is optional, if none is supplied, the new menu\'s title is the same as the item label\. An [end] tag is required to end the submenu\.
When selected this item re\-reads the current style and menu files and applies any changes\. This is useful for creating a new style or theme, as you don\'t have to constantly restart fluxbox every time you save your style\. However, fluxbox automatically rereads the menu whenever it changes\.
This tells fluxbox to restart\. If command is supplied, it shuts down and runs the command (which is commonly the name of another window manager)\. If the command is omitted, fluxbox restarts itself\.
This tells fluxbox to insert a link to the workspaces menu directly into your menu\. This is handy for those users who can\'t access the workspace menu directly (e\.g\. if you don\'t have a 3 button mouse, it is rather hard to middle click to show the workspace menu)\.
In addition to the commands above, any legal key command may be used as a menu item\. See fluxbox\-keys(5) for more information\.
.RE
Any line that starts with a \fI#\fR or \fI!\fR is considered a comment and ignored by fluxbox\. Also, in the label/command/filename fields you can escape any character\. Using \fI\e\e\fR inserts a literal back\-slash into the label/command/filename field\.
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 style and can\'t be defined as a global setting (except with the style overlay)\.
\fBIconbar\fR: This is the area that contains all windows (all running applications, all minimized windows or maybe no window, all depending on the Toolbar Settings)\.
Other aspects of the toolbar can be configured in two ways: through the toolbar menu, which is accessable in the Configuration part of the RootMenu or with a right click on the edge the toolbar, or by editing the init file (see the RESOURCES section for more information about that)\.
All changes take effect immediately, except for a change of the "Toolbar Alpha", which needs a restart to make the change visible\. Here are the settings:
\fBAuto hide\fR: 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\.
\fBToolbar width percentage\fR: Sets the width of the toolbar in percent\. Use the left mouse button to decrease and the right mouse\-button to increase the value\. The value can be from 1\-100\.
\fBMaximize Over\fR: Enabling this option will prevent windows from maximizing over the toolbar\. With this switched on they will only expand to the edge of the bar\. To use this option, "Full Maximization" from the Configuration menu must be DISABLED\. Otherwise this option will not work\.
\fBAlpha\fR: 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\.
Usually the ~/\.fluxbox/init resource file is created and maintained by fluxbox itself\. You can use the [config] menu to set most of these options\. However, we\'ll cover all of the resource options that are available to the user\. If you edit this file while fluxbox is running, you must `reconfigure\' to reload the resource options\.
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When running fluxbox in a multiple desktop environment the screen0 key can also be screen1, screen2, etc\. You can customize the behavior of fluxbox on each desktop accordingly\. Here are the resources that are currently available:
You can customize fluxbox\'s key handling through the ~/\.fluxbox/keys file\. See \fIfluxbox\-keys(5)\fR for more information on the syntax of this file\.
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.SH"LAYERS"
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\. By default, fluxbox uses 13 layers, starting from 1 (highest)\. The number of layers can be changed by using the following resource:
There are two ways to assign a window to a different layer\. When the window is open, you may select the layer in the `Layer \&...\' 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):
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\.
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\.
There is one more option in the focus model menu\. It is called AutoRaise\. When AutoRaise is enabled, focused windows will appear on top of other windows in the same layer\. When AutoRaise is disabled, you must explicitly raise a focused window, using the window menu or keybinding\.
fluxbox enables you to use specialized files that contain X(1) resources to specify colors, textures, pixmaps and fonts, and thus the overall look of your window borders, menus and the toolbar\.
In addition to the style file, the overlay file, whose location is specified by session\.screen0\.styleOverlay (default: ~/\.fluxbox/overlay ) 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 fluxstyle(1)\.
It is possible to force an application to always have the same dimensions, position, and other settings when it is first launched\. The easiest way to do this is to use the `Remember\&...\' submenu of the window menu, which can usually be opened with a right click on the titlebar\. More advanced features require manually editing the ~/\.fluxbox/apps file, where these settings are saved\.
o name \- the name of the window (the first field of WM_CLASS) o class \- class of the window (the second field of WM_CLASS) o title \- title of the window (the WM_NAME property) o role \- role of the window (the WM_WINDOW_ROLE property)
You can find out the value for these fields for a particular window by running xprop(1)\. The window title should be used only as a last resort, since it often changes after the window opens\. Each \fIvalue\fR can be a string or a regular expression\. All values are case sensitive\.
You can specify multiple properties, which must ALL match for the settings to be applied\. If a count is supplied in curly brackets at the end of the app line, then the entry will only match at most that many at any time (default is to match all matching windows)\. Settings associated with an [app] line will not be applied to transient windows\. [transient] may be used instead to match them\.
The following are the settings that can be defined in each [app] entry\. Each name must be enclosed in square brackets, and the value is generally in curly brackets:
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'Specify the layer to open the window on (by number)\. Each layer has a number\. The named ones are: 2\-AboveDock, 4\-Dock, 6\-Top, 8\-Normal, 10\-Bottom, 12\-Desktop\.
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'[Jump] {yes|no}: Jump to workspace\. This one is only useful if `Workspace\' is set too\. The workspace is changed to the workspace containing the application being launched\.
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'[Close] {yes|no}: Save settings on close\. By default, application settings are not saved when a window is closed\. Set this option if you want previous settings to be saved when the window is closed\.
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'[Alpha] {int [int]} Where numbers represent focused and unfocused transparency, respectively\. One number only will be used for both\.
The apps file also allows you to specify applications that should be started only valid option is (screen=NN), where NN is the screen number on which the command should be run\.
Finally, you can set windows to group together by using the `apps\' file\. Just place a [group] tag around several [app] tags, with an [end] tag to indicate the end of the group\. If you place (workspace) after the [group] tag, a new window will only get grouped with other windows on the current workspace\. You can also specify dimensions, positions, etc\. for the group as for normal app entries\. Here is a short example of an `apps\' file:
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\.
You can right click on the edge of the slit window to get a menu to configure its position, whether its contained applications should be grouped horizontally or vertically and whether the slit should hide itself when the mouse moves away\. The slit menu items are described in more detail below:
\fBAuto hide\fR: If enabled, the slit will disappear after a given amount of time and hide from the view of the user\. You can make it appear if you move the mouse to the edge of the desktop where the slit is positioned\.
\fBMaximize over\fR: If this is enabled, all windows, if you maximize them, will stretch over/under the slit\. Otherwise the will be limited to the slit\'s edge\.
\fBClients\fR: 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 appear by selecting them in the list\. The "Save SlitList" option saves the new order to you slitlist located in ~/\.fluxbox (useful if you reordered the apps with the cycle option)\.
fluxbox\'s 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 ~/\.fluxbox/slitlist
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 auto\-run script, or better yet your startfluxbox(8) script\.
Users are free to manually edit the slitlist file\. It is a simple list of window names, as given by xprop(1), one per dockapp\. Similar to the init file it should not be edited while fluxbox is running\. Otherwise changes may get overwritten\.
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The user also has the option of choosing a different path for the slitlist file\. The following is the init file component that needs to be changed:
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 certain commands in the keys and menu files\. So one can do:
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 http://sf\.net/projects/fluxbox \. Or you may subscribe to one of the mailinglists\. More information can be found on the official website\.
