CTWM(1)

Print usage text.

This option specifies the X server to use.

This option indicates that it is not an error if a window manager is already running. In that case, the existing window manager is asked to quit, and ctwm takes its place. Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_EWMH flag. First appeared in 4.0.0.

This option indicates that only the default screen (as specified by --display or by the DISPLAY environment variable) should be managed. By default, ctwm will attempt to manage all screens on the display.

This option causes ctwm to only try to parse the config file, and indicate whether errors are found.

This option causes ctwm to print out the compiled-in fallback config. First appeared in 4.0.0.

This option specifies the name of the startup file to use. ctwm will first try to load filename.num, where num is the screen number. If it fails, it will try to load filename. By default, ctwm will look in the user’s home directory for files named .ctwmrc.num, .ctwmrc, .twmrc.num, or .twmrc (where num is a screen number).

This option indicates that ctwm 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.

Disables --verbose (useful for overriding aliases, etc).

This option indicates that ctwm should not filter the startup file through m4. Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_M4 flag.

This option indicates that ctwm should keep the definitions it prepends to your startup file when filtering through m4 in /tmp. Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_M4 flag.

This option indicates that ctwm should keep the result of filtering your startup file through m4 in the named file. Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_M4 flag.

Run in monochrome mode.

ctwm just prints its version number.

ctwm prints its detailed version and compile time options.

This option tells ctwm not to display any welcome when starting.

Something to do with session management

Ignored.

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.

This is the usual name for an individual user’s startup file.

The users twm startup file.

If none of the preceding files are found, ctwm 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.

This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) that ctwm will try its best to maintain on top of others. This doesn’t work in all case.

When ReallyMoveInWorkspaceManager is present and the user is moving a window from the WorkSpaceMap, ctwm display the actual window only if it crosses the current active workspace. If AlwaysShowWindowWhenMovingFromWorkspaceManager is present, the actual window is always visible during the move, regardless of whether it crosses the current workspace or not. The Shift key toggles this behaviour.

This variable indicates that ctwm should obey window gravity when squeezing a window even when the window has a titlebar. Normally, ctwm will always squeeze a window that has a titlebar toward the north. The optional win-list may be used to control which windows this applies on.

The speed argument is a non-negative integer. It determines the number of times a second animations (if any) are updated. If speed is 0, animations are freezed. The default value is 0.

Transient windows get focus automatically when created. Useful with programs that have keyboard shortcuts that pop up windows.

This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) to be automatically lowered whenever the pointer leaves a window. This action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual windows using the function f.autolower.

This variable specifies that clients will automatically change their occupation when their name or icon name changes. The new occupation will be recalculated from the Occupy and OccupyAll fields in the .ctwmrc file.

This variables specifies a list of windows which will be deiconified whenever their name changes. Can be used for xconsole, for instance,which adds a "*" to its name whenever something gets displayed on the console, or for various mail readers who change their icons depending on the presence of unread mail.

This variable specifies that ctwm should automatically recompute the priority of a window (and its associated icon) when its name changes. See also OnTopPriority.

This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) to be automatically raised whenever the pointer has come to rest in a window for the amount of time specified by the RaiseDelay variable. This action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual windows using the function f.autoraise.

Icons are raised when the cursor enters it. Useful with ShrinkIconTitles.

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 automatically 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 titlebutton, ctwm will still wait for the pointer to cross a window edge (to prevent accidents). This option is particularly useful for people who like the press-drag-release method of sweeping out window sizes.

These windows will be auto-squeezed (see f.squeeze). i.e. automatically unsqueezed when they get focus, and squeezed when they loose it. Useful for the workspace manager. Not authorized for icon managers.

Enable usage of backing store on menus and workspace map windows. See also NoBackingStore. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.

By defaults new colors are allocated for shadows when a 3D look is used, but when you specify BeNiceToColormap ctwm uses stipling instead of new colors, the effect is less beautiful, but acceptable. In this case ClearShadowContrast and DarkShadowContrast have no effects.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the bottom of the screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc…​) will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.

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 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"
}

This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the left of the screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc…​) will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.

This variable specifies that ctwm should use resizing cursors when the pointer is on the window border. To be used preferably when you have bound a button to f.resize in the frame context.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the right of the screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc…​) will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.

This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D window borders, when UseThreeDBorders is selected.

This variable specifies the default background color in the gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn’t been set), and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is “white”.

This variable specifies the default foreground color in the gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn’t been set), and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is “black”.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the top of the screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc…​) will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding all client window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not been specified. This value is also used to set the border size of windows created by ctwm (such as the icon manager). The default is 2.

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 TitleButtonBorderWidth variables to 0 makes titlebuttons be as tall and wide as possible. The default is 1 if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is set.

The moving and resizing information window is centered in the middle of the screen instead of the top left corner.

Indicates to ctwm how to calculate the clear shadow color for 3D items. The value is a comprised between 0 and 100. The formula used is :

    clear.{RGB} = (65535 - color.{RGB}) * (contrast / 100).

Focus windows by clicking on them, rather than merely mousing over them.

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. If Use3DBorders is set this variable is automatically unset.

This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made if the default display is capable of displaying more than simple black and white. The colors-list is made up of the following color variables and their values: DefaultBackground, DefaultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitleBackground, MenuTitleForeground, and MenuShadowColor. The following 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, IconManagerHighlight, BorderTileBackground, BorderTileForeground, TitleBackground, TitleForeground, IconBackground, IconForeground, IconBorderColor, IconManagerBackground, and IconManagerForeground. For example:

Color
{
    MenuBackground      "gray50"
    MenuForeground      "blue"
    BorderColor         "red"    { "XTerm" "yellow" }
    TitleForeground     "yellow"
    TitleBackground     "blue"
}

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 or other similar moving functions will cause the window only be moved in a horizontal or vertical direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.

This variable specifies the glyphs that ctwm 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"

    cursorname "image" "mask"

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"
}

Indicates to ctwm how to calculate the dark shadow color for 3D items. The value is a comprised between 0 and 100. The formula used is :

    dark.{RGB}  = color.{RGB} * ((100 - contrast) / 100),

This variable indicates that transient windows (those containing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property) should have titlebars. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

This variable specifies the background color to be used for sizing and information windows. The default is “white”.

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for sizing and information windows. The default is “black”.

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 windows are handled by the icon manager.

This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to be moved off the screen. It can be overridden by the f.forcemove function.

Disable setting WM_NAME properties on the various decoration windows ctwm puts around the windows it manages. These are handy to keep track of what’s what when poking through the list of windows on the screen, but can confuse some tools that don’t expect to find them there (xwit is known to be one of them). First appeared in 4.0.2.

This variable tells ctwm not to paint the root window, whatever you told in the Workspaces specification. This is useful to have pixmaps in the Workspace Map but not on the root window.

These windows won’t have their characteristics saved for the session manager.

These windows won’t be set to InactiveState when they become invisible due to a change workspace. This has been added because some ill-behaved clients (Frame5) don’t like this.

Indicates the same as the -W option: the welcome window is not shown.

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.

Turns off the feature toggling the workspace manager state to/from map/button state when you press ctrl and the workspace manager window is in focus.

Tells ctwm not to warp the cursor to the corresponding actual window when you click in a small window in the workspace map.

Sets EWMH message types that ctwm will ignore. This is only valid if built with USE_EWMH (currently on by default). The following example shows all the valid options:

EWMHIgnore
{
    # Window states
    "STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT"
    "STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ"
    "STATE_FULLSCREEN"
    "STATE_SHADED"
    "STATE_ABOVE"
    "STATE_BELOW"
}

Give focus to windows whether they asked for it or not. This may occasionally be useful with windows that tell us not to give them focus, but still need it and fail to work right without us doing so. The optional window list allows specifying which windows will get such treatment.

This variable indicates that icon pixmaps specified in the Icons variable should override any client-supplied pixmaps.

This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar decorations (the button and text) and the window frame. The default is 2 pixels if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is set.

Specifies that ctwm should grab the X server (blocking all events other than ours) when popping up menus and moving opaque windows. See also NoGrabServer. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.

This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon windows, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding icon windows. The default is 2.

This variable specifies the directory that should be searched if a bitmap file cannot be found in any of the directories in the bitmapFilePath resource.

This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon names within icons. The default is “variable”.

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by being unmapped without trying to map any icons. This assumes that the user is 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.

Where string is either "normal", "mosaic", "zoomin", "zoomout" or "sweep". Tells ctwm to use some fancy graphical effects when iconifying windows.

Where string is either "left", "center" or "right". Tells ctwm how to justify the icon image against the icon title (if any).

This variable specifies the background color to use for icon manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable indicates that the icon manager should not display 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.

This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying icon manager entries. The default is “variable”.

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icon manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable specifies the geometry of the icon manager window. 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. When XrandR is compiled, the geometry can be relative to a monitor, by prefixing its name (visible with xrandr(1) command line) followed by :. This name is ignored when XrandR is not available.

This variable specifies the border color to be used when highlighting the icon manager entry that currently has the focus, and can only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create. Each item in the iconmgr-list has the following format:

    "winname" ["iconname"] "geometry" columns

IconManagers
{
    "XTerm"  "=300x5+800+5"       5
    "myhost" "HDMI2:400x5+100+5"  2
}

This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D IconManager entries, when UseThreeDIconManagers is selected.

This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear in the icon manager. When used in conjunction with the IconManagerDontShow variable, only the windows in this list will be shown in the icon manager.

Don’t show the name of these windows in the TwmIcons menu.

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. When XrandR is compiled, the geometry can be relative to a monitor, by prefixing its name (visible with xrandr(1) command line) followed by :. This name is ignored when XrandR is not available. 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 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 or from the right. Icons are laid out within the region in a grid with cells gridwidth pixels wide and gridheight pixels high. The optional win-list argument tells ctwm that if such a window is iconified, and there is enough room in this icon region for its icon, then place it here. The optional iconjust, iconregjust and iconregalign can be used to give specific values of IconJustification, IconRegionJustification and IconRegionAlignement for this IconRegion.

Where string is either "top", "center" "bottom" or "border". Tells ctwm how to align icons inside their place in the IconRegion. If “border” is given, the justification will be “top” if the icon region gravity is “north” and “bottom” if the icon region gravity is “south”.

Where string is either "left", "center" "right" or "border". Tells ctwm how to justify icons inside their place in the IconRegion. If “border” is given, the justification will be “left” if the icon region gravity is “west” and “right” if the icon region gravity is “east”.

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"
}

(Only if built with USE_EWMH) string is of the form "<width>x<height>" or "size" for a square size. This indicates the preferred size of icons selected from the EWMH window property _NET_WM_ICON. If an icon with the exact size is not available, one with the nearest (area) size will be chosen.

Used when moving the pointer inside a menu with the keyboard. When you type a letter, the pointer goes to the next entry beginning with this letter. If IgnoreCaseInMenuSelection is present, this selection ignores the case of this first letter.

If present, all bindings (buttons and keys) will ignore the LockMask. Useful if you often use caps lock, and don’t want to define twice all your bindings.

All bindings (buttons and keys) will ignore the modifiers you specified. It is useful when you use caps locks or num locks. You don’t need IgnoreLockModifier any more with this option.

IgnoreModifier { lock m2 }

List of windows for which to ignore transients.

IgnoreTransient { "Wine" }

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
}

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.

This variable specifies the background colors to use for small windows in the workspace map window and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. If there is neither MapWindowBackground, nor MapWindowForeground the window title colors are used.

Specify the appearence of the map window corresponding to the current workspace.

Specify the appearence of the map window corresponding to the workspaces other than the current workspace when no root background information has been provided to ctwm in the WorkSpace command. Not used in others cases.

This variable specifies the foreground colors to use for small windows in the workspace map window and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. If there is neither MapWindowBackground, nor MapWindowForeground the window title colors are used.

The integer argument tells ctwm the maximun width to use for an icon title. If an icon title is larger than width, it is truncated.

This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and height give the maximum size for a given window. This is typically used to restrict windows to the size of the screen. The default is “30000x30000”.

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”.

This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus. The default is “variable”.

This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “black”.

This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-down menus and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “black”.

This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D menus, when UseThreeDMenus is selected.

This variable specifies the background color for f.title entries in menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “white”.

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”.

This allows manually configuring what ctwm will consider as the list of monitors. If XRANDR support is compiled in (the default as of 4.1.0), and the RANDR extension is available on your server, then ctwm will use that to determine the size and layout of your monitors.

MonitorLayout
{
    # Imagine a 5000x1000 monitor, that we want to split into two 2k wide
    # sections at the far left and right, with a 1k wide section in the
    # middle.
    "Left:2000x1000+0+0"
    "1000x1000+2000+0"       # Middle section unnamed
    "Right:2000x1000+3000+0"
}

define(LeftWidth, eval(WIDTH / 2))dnl
define(RightWidth, eval(WIDTH - LeftWidth))dnl
MonitorLayout
{
    "`AutoL:'LeftWidth`x'HEIGHT`+0+0'"
    "`AutoR:'RightWidth`x'HEIGHT`+'LeftWidth`+0'"
}

This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should be made if the screen has a depth of 1. See the description of Color.

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.

This variable specifies the number of pixels of the movepack and movepush resistance. See f.movepack and f.movepush.

This variable specifies the number of pixels of the moveoff resistance. If pixels is positive, DontMoveOff will only prevent you from going off the edge if you’re within n pixels off the edge. If you go further, DontMoveOff gives up and lets you go as far as you wish. f.forcemove still allows you to totally ignore DontMoveOff. A negative value puts you back into “never moveoff” mode (it’s the default).

Sets Motif window manager hints ctwm will ignore. The following example shows all the valid options:

MWMIgnore
{
    # en/disable window borders
    "DECOR_BORDER"

    # en/disable titlebars
    "DECOR_TITLE"
}

This variable indicates that ctwm’s menus should not request backing store to minimize repainting of menus. This is typically used with servers that can repaint faster than they can handle backing store. See also BackingStore. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

These windows won’t have borders. If you want no borders on all windows, use the BorderWidth keyword.

This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sorting icon names in an icon manager. This option is typically used with applications that capitalize the first letter of their icon name.

Specify that transient windows (i.e., windows with a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property set) should be ignored (not given decorations) by ctwm. See also DecorateTransients. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.

This variable indicates that ctwm 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.

This variable indicates that ctwm should not grab the server when popping up menus and moving opaque windows. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

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 an gray pattern using the current BorderTileForeground and BorderTileBackground colors.

This variable indicates that icons should not display the icon name of the client. If the optional win-list is given, only those clients will not have icon titles.

This variable indicates that ctwm will not set the focus on the corresponding window when the pointer is in an IconManager.

This variable indicates that no icon manager should be created.

This variable turns off displaying of background images in the WorkSpaceMap. Instead only the colors defined in WorkSpaces will be used as background in the WorkSpaceMap.

This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shadows drawn behind them. This is typically used with slower servers since it speeds up menu drawing at the expense of making the menu slightly harder to read.

The counterpart of OpaqueMove. See OpaqueMove.

The counterpart of OpaqueResize. See OpaqueResize.

This variable indicates that windows that are deiconified should not be raised.

This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when moved. This is typically used to allow windows to slide underneath each other.

This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when resized. This is typically used to allow windows to be resized underneath each other.

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).

Don’t attempt to regenerate the state the screen was in before the previous window manager was shut down. See RestartPreviousState for details. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.

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.

This variable specifies that OccupyAll windows won’t be displayed in the WorkSpaceMap window.

Specifies that entries in the icon manager should be appended in the order they show up. See also SortIconManager. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.

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.

This variable indicates that windows should not have titlebars. 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.

This variable indicates that ctwm should not set keyboard input focus to each window as it is entered. Normally, ctwm 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 ctwm 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.

This variable indicates that the highlight area of the titlebar, 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 substantially reduce the amount of screen space required by titlebars.

This variable indicates that the cursor should not be warped to the title of a menu which does not have room to drop down below the current cursor position.

This variable specifies which windows occupy which workspaces at startup.

        [Window]   win-name  { wspc1 wspc2 ... }
or      Workspace  wspc-name { win1  win2 ...  }

Occupy
{
               "xload"   {"all"}
    Window     "xterm"   {"here" "there" "elsewhere"}
               "xv"      {"images"}
    WorkSpace  "images"  {"xloadimage"}
}

ctwm allows you to put windows in several overlapping priority planes going from -8 to +8, which makes it possible to have windows that stay on top or that are kept in the background. If win-list is present, it specifies which windows should be put in the priority plane. Else the priority sets the default value to use (the default default is 0). The Icons parameter, if present, indicates that the preference described applies to icons rather than to windows.

OnTopPriority Icons -1  # place icons a little in the background
OnTopPriority Icons 1   # place mail icons on top of normal windows
{
    "Exmh"
    "xbiff"
}

OnTopPriority 8         # keep these always on top of other windows
{
    "Emacs Icon Manager" "WorkSpaceManager"
    "TWM Icon Manager" "XDaliClock"
}

This variable indicates that the f.move function should actually 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). The optional window list parameter indicates that only windows in this list should actually be moved in opaque mode. The NoOpaqueMove counterpart is also available.

The integer parameter is a percentage and indicates that only windows (elligible for opaque moving) with a surface smaller than this percentage of the surface of the screen should actually be moved in opaque mode. The default is 200. Since 4.0.0, values >= 200 are treated as infinity, causing windows to always OpaqueMove if eligible.

The opaque version of resize. Extremely resource intensive, but beautiful with fast server/client/network. See OpaqueMove. The NoOpaqueResize counterpart is also available. As of 4.0.0 this is enabled by default.

The resize version of OpaqueMoveThreshold. The default is 1000. Since 3.8.1, values >= 1000 are treated as infinity, causing windows to always OpaqueResize if eligible.

seconds is an integer representing a number of second. When a window tries to open on an unattended display, it will be automatically mapped after this number of seconds.

Use f.movepack algorithm instead of f.move when opening a new window.

This variable specifies a list of pixmaps that define the appearance of various images. Each entry is a keyword indicating the pixmap to set, followed by a string giving the name of the bitmap file. The following pixmaps may be specified:

Pixmaps
{
        TitleHighlight  "gray1"
#       TitleHighlight  "supman%.xbm"
}

This variable specifies the path where ctwm looks to find non-X11 bitmap files. Whenever you want to use a image file that is not an X11 bitmap, specify : xpm:filename for xpm files, xwd:filename for xwd files, jpeg:file for jpeg file, or |command for an on the fly generated xwd file. Use the % character to specify an animation. path can be a colon separated list of directories. Example :

PixmapDirectory  "/usr/lib/X11/twm"
Icons
{
    "Axe"    "xpm:edit.xpm"
    "xterm"  "xpm:ball%.xpm"
}

Specifies that the windows in win-list can switch priority. This means that they can be in plane priority or -priority depending on the situation. For instance a window whose priority is 2 will be put into plane 2 when raised and plane -2 when lowered, which means that it will usually stay on top if you raise another window, but can still be lowered if its priority is temporarily too high for your liking. If Icons is specified, it means that the preference applies to icons rather than windows. See also the f.priorityswitching function for dynamically adding/removing windows at runtime.

As above except that it declares that the default should be for windows to be able to switch priority except for the windows in win-list which can’t.

For windows that are to be automatically raised when the pointer enters (see the AutoRaise variable and the f.autoraise function) this variable specifies the length of time the pointer should rest in the window before it is raised. The default is 0 milliseconds.

If present a window will be raised on top of others when clicked on, and the ButtonPress event will be correctly forwarded to the client that owns this window (if it asked to). See RaiseOnClickButton.

Where button_number is a valid button number (currently 1 to 11). Specify the button to use for RaiseOnClick.

Windows are raised when auto-unsqueezed (See AutoSqueeze).

This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry should be placed in a pseudo-random location instead of having the user drag out an outline. If no argument is given, it is interpreted as RandomPlacement "on".

This keyword tells ctwm to move the actual window when the user is moving the small windows in the WorkSpaceMap window. If not present the WorkSpaceMap can be used only to modify the occupation of a window. Pressing the shift key while dragging a window in the workspace manager temporarily toggles this option.

This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimensions window when resizing windows. The default is “fixed”.

This variable indicates that properties on client windows to attempt to regenerate the state that the screen was in before the previous window manager was shutdown. This includes using the WM_STATE property to tell which windows should be iconified and which should be left visible, and the WM_OCCUPATION property to determine in which workspaces a window should be visible. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

This variable tells ctwm to reverse the background and foreground colors in the small windows in the workspace map for the current workspace.

The host on which sounds should be played. Only meaningful when ctwm is built with USE_SOUND; will give a warning otherwise. See the SOUNDS section. Added in 4.0.0; prior versions used the SoundHost parameter instead.

Define what sounds to play on various events through rplayd. It contains entries of the form

    "EventName"   "/file/to/play.wav"

This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be stored as pixel values in the root window property _MIT_PRIORITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these values when installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mechanism is a way for an application to avoid the “technicolor” problem, whereby useful screen objects such as window borders and titlebars disappear when a program’s custom colors are installed by the window manager. For example:

SaveColor
{
    BorderColor
    TitleBackground
    TitleForeground
    "red"
    "green"
    "blue"
}

A la Motif shrinking of icon titles, and expansion when mouse is inside icon. The old incorrect spelling SchrinkIconTitles is also still accepted.

Don’t show WorkSpaceManager and IconManagers in the TwmWindows and TwmAllWindows menus.

This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be displayed when ctwm is started. It can always be brought up using the f.showiconmgr function.

This variable specifies that the WorkSpaceManager should be visible.

Use sloppy focus.

When changing to a workspace, restore the focus to the last window that had the focus when you left the workspace by warping the mouse into it. This essentially saves the focus window with the workspace and restores it automatically when you switch. In many cases, it avoids having to reach for the mouse after moving to a new workspace.

This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager should be sorted alphabetically rather than by simply appending new windows to the end. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

Alias for RplaySoundHost, used in versions prior to 4.0.0. Unless you need backward compatibility with them, use RplaySoundHost instead. This alias will be removed in a future version.

This variable indicates that ctwm 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

SqueezeTitle
{
    "XTerm"   left    0  0
    "xterm1"  left    1  3
    "xterm2"  left    2  3
    "oclock"  center  1  2
    "emacs"   right   2  2
}

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 support an -iconic command line option or resource.

Start the WorkSpaceManage in button form. See also StartInMapState. Added in 4.0.0.

This variable specifies that the WorkSpaceManager should be started in its map form when created. See also StartInButtonState. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.

These windows will first show up squeezed (see f.squeeze).

Tells ctwm to use stayup menus. These menus will stay on the screen when ButtonUp, if either the menu has not yet been entered by the pointer, or the current item is a f.title.

Whether to be strict about what encodings we accept for window naming properties. Added in 4.0.2.

This variable specifies that the title of the focus window (if exists) should be sunken instead of raised. Only valid if UseThreeDTitles is set.

The width of the 3D border in pixels, if any.

This variable specifies the background color used in titlebars, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding 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 if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is set.

This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D title buttons, when UseThreeDTitles is selected.

This variable specifies the font used for displaying window names in titlebars. The default is “variable”.

This variable specifies the foreground color used in titlebars, and may only be specified inside of a Color 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”.

This keyword needs a string value. The acceptable values are : “left”, “center” and “right”. The window titles will be justified according to this in the title window.

This variable specifies the distance between the various buttons, text, and highlight areas in the titlebar. The default is 8 pixels if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is set.

This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D titles, when UseThreeDTitles is selected.

This variable specifies that transient-for and non-group leader windows can have their own occupation potentially different from their leader window. The default case is that these windows follow their leader, use this keyword if the default action doesn’t please you.

The parameter (required) is a percentage and tells ctwm to put transient (and non-group leader) windows always on top of their leader if and only if their surface is smaller than this fraction of the surface of their leader. The surface of a window is its width times its weight. The default is 30%. Added in 3.0.

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.

These windows will be moved out of the screen instead of being unmapped when they become invisible due to a change workspace. This has been added because some ill-behaved clients (Frame5) don’t like to be unmapped.

This variable specifies whether or not ctwm should honor program-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 ctwm should ignore the program-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.

This makes it so the shadows are inversed for title pixmaps when focus is lost. This is similar to having the SunkFocusWindowTitle, but it makes your xbm or 3d XPM (if any) sink instead of just the whole bar.

Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking window borders. The width ot the 3D borders is ThreeDBorderWidth. The color of the 3D border is BorderTileBackground, and if NoHighlight is not selected, the border of the Focus window is BorderColor. Setting this automatically unsets ClientBorderWidth.

Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking IconManagers if any.

Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking menus.

Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking windows titles. In which case the default values of TitleButtonBorderWidth, FramePadding, TitlePadding and ButtonIndent are set to 0. There are plenty of built-in scalable pixmaps for buttons: :xpm:menu, :xpm:dot, :xpm:cross, :xpm:bar, :xpm:vbar, :xpm:iconify, :xpm:resize, :xmp:sunkresize, and :xpm:box. There are several built-in scalable animations for buttons: %xpm:resize, %xpm:menu-up, %xpm:menu-down, %xpm:resize-out-top, %xpm:resize-in-top, %xpm:resize-out-bot, %xpm:resize-in-bot, %xpm:maze-out, %xpm:maze-in, %xpm:zoom-out, %xpm:zoom-in, and %xpm:zoom-inout. Try them to see what they look like.

Tells ctwm to use 3D for the small windows in the workspace map.

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.

When ctwm receives a request to map a window, it normally just deiconifies it, but if the window is in win-list, it will additionally bring it into the current workspace, if necessary. For example

WarpOnDeIconify { "Emacs" }

Tells ctwm that f.warpring warps pointer only to windows visible in the current workspace.

(Useful only with StayUpMenus) When using StayUpMenus, and a menu does stays up, the pointer is warped to the default entry of the menu.

This variable indicates that that the f.warpto function should deiconify any iconified windows it encounters. This is typically 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.

Used to give a default geometry to some clients. When XrandR is compiled, the geometry can be relative to a monitor, by prefixing its name (visible with xrandr(1) command line) followed by :. This name is ignored when XrandR is not available:

WindowGeometries {
    "Mozilla*"       "1000x800+10+10"
    "jpilot*"        "HDMI1:800x600-0-0"
}

Similar to IconRegion, but for windows. Note that the win-list is not optional.

This variable specifies a list of windows along which the f.warpring function cycles. If no argument is given, all the windows are in the ring.

All listed windows will be excluded from the WarpRing.

Control the depth of the shadow of the workspace manager buttons.

Sets the style of the workspace manager buttons (when in button rather than map state), as well as the buttons in the Occupy window. Available options are normal (the default 3d look), style1, style2, and style3 (which are slightly different 2d looks).

Specifies the horizontal space, in pixel, between the buttons of the workspace manager (in button mode).

Specifies the vertical space, in pixel, between the buttons of the workspace manager (in button mode).

This allows you to specify the font to use for the small windows in the workspace manager map. (Try -adobe-times-*-r-*--10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*).

This variable specifies the geometry of the workspace manager window. The string argument is standard geometry specification that indicates the initial full size of the workspace manager. When XrandR is compiled, the geometry can be relative to a monitor, by prefixing its name (visible with xrandr(1) command line) followed by :. This name is ignored when XrandR is not available. The columns argument indicates the number of columns to use for the workspace manager window.

WorkSpaceManagerGeometry        "360x60+60-0" 8
WorkSpaceManagerGeometry        "HDMI1:600x30+1235+0" 12

This variable specifies a list of workspaces that are created at startup, Where workspace-list is :

name [{bg-button [fg-button] [bg-root] [fg-root] [pixmap-root]}]

WorkSpaces
{
  "One"   {"#686B9F" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "jpeg:shark.jpg"}
  "Two"   {"#619AAE" "white" "firebrick"}
  "Three" {"#727786" "white" "MidnightBlue" "white" "xpm:ball%.xpm"}
  "Four"  {"#727786" "white" "white"        "white"
                                      "|(giftoppm | pnmtoxwd) < 2010.gif"}

  "Five"  {"#727786" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "plaid"}
  "Six"   {"#619AAE" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "xpm:background1"}
  "Seven" {"#8C5b7A" "white" "chartreuse4"}
  "Eight" {"#686B9F" "white" "MidnightBlue"}
}

This variable specifies the value to use to constrain window movement. When moving windows around, the x coordinate will always be a multiple of this variable. Default is 1. f.forcemove ignores this variable.

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 distinguishable colors when exclusive-or’ed with the contents of the user’s typical screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice results if adjacent colors in the default colormap are distinct. By default, ctwm will attempt to cause temporary lines to appear at the opposite end of the colormap from the graphics.

This variable specifies the value to use to constrain window movement. When moving windows around, the y coordinate will always be a multiple of this variable. Default is 1. f.forcemove ignores this variable.

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.

This variable specifies the function to be executed when the user change the current workspace (zap).

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.

This variable specifies the function to be executed when a window is deiconified.

This variable specifies the function to be executed when a window is iconified.

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.

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.

This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with a tilde and for locating the ctwm startup file.