This is ratpoison.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from
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* ratpoison: (ratpoison).       Say good-bye to the rodent
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   This is the ratpoison user manual.

   Copyright (C) 2000, 2001 Shawn Betts

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the sections entitled "Copying" and "GNU General Public License"
are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Top,  Next: About,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

   This document explains how to use ratpoison.

* Menu:

* About::                       What is ratpoison?
* Contacting::                  How do I contact the ratpoison developers?
* General Use::                 How does this thing work??
* Keystrokes::                  Key commands and functionality
* Commands::                    ratpoison commands
* Startup file::                They threatened me...with violence!


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: About,  Next: Contacting,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

About
*****

   ratpoison is a simple Window Manager with no fat library
dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no flashy
wank. It is largely modelled after GNU Screen which has done wonders in
virtual

   All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes.
ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize the key clobbering that cripples
EMACS and other quality pieces of software.

   ratpoison was written by Shawn Betts
(<sabetts@users.sourceforge.net>).


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Contacting,  Next: General Use,  Prev: About,  Up: Top

Contacting
**********

   ratpoison is hosted on <sourceforge.net>. To see the latest
developments in ratpoison go to
<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ratpoison> or visit the ratpoison
webpage at <http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net>.

   There is also a ratpoison mailing list:
<ratpoison-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>. For details on subscribing and
for the list archives go to the ratpoison sourceforge.net project.

   There is a #ratpoison irc channel on irc.openprojects.net.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: General Use,  Next: Keystrokes,  Prev: Contacting,  Up: Top

General Use
***********

   When ratpoison starts you should see an empty X server. To open an x
terminal hit `C-t c'. You can now run shell commands as you would on
any terminal. Notice the terminal maximized full screen. `C-t !' will
run a single shell command and saves you the effort of opening a
terminal.

   Once you have a couple X programs running, you'll want to navigate
between windows. To see what windows are being managed hit `C-t w'.
Each window has a number. You can jump to a window by hitting `C-t'
followed by the window's number. This assumes the the window's number
is one digit. You can also switch to a window by typing in part of its
name. To do this hit `C-t A'.

   ratpoison allows you to cycle through the windows with `C-t n' and
`C-t p'.

   And That concludes a brief introduction on how to use ratpoison.
Notice how we didn't have to drag a single window, or click a single
maximize button? Beautiful wasn't it? Felt fast? Cool? Its modern
computing at its best boys and girls.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Keystrokes,  Next: Commands,  Prev: General Use,  Up: Top

Keystrokes
**********

   ratpoison is a very simple window manager. Each window is maximized
and has no border decorations. The default keystrokes are listed in this
chapter. Not all commands are accessible by default by keys. A full list
of ratpoison commands is in the next section.

`C-t C-t'
     Switch to the last window.

`C-t t'
     Sometimes you need to send a C-t to the current window. This
     keystroke does just that.

`C-t 0-9'
     Switch to the numbered window.

`C-t A'

`C-t C-A'
     Rename the current window. The window's new name will prevail for
     the rest of its lifetime.

`C-t K'

`C-t C-K'
     Send a DestroyClient event to the current window. This will
     terminate the application without question.

`C-t n'

`C-t C-n'

`C-t Return'

`C-t C-Return'

`C-t Space'

`C-t C-Space'
     Go to next window.

`C-t p'

`C-t C-p'
     Go to previous window.

`C-t ''

`C-t C-''
     Go to a window by name.  You will usually only need to type the
     first few characters of the window name.

`C-t a'

`C-t C-a'
     Display the current time of day.

`C-t c'

`C-t C-c'
     Open a new X terminal.

`C-t :'

`C-t C-:'
     This allows you to execute a single ratpoison command.

`C-t !'
     Run a shell command.

`C-t C-!'
     Run a shell command through an X terminal.

`C-t k'

`C-t C-k'
     Close the current window.

`C-t m'

`C-t C-m'
     Maximize the current window. Sometimes windows don't respond
     correctly to the initial maximize event and need some coaxing.
     This is a fancy way of saying there are still bugs in ratpoison.
     `C-t m' will force the current window to maximize.

`C-t v'

`C-t C-v'
     Display the version of ratpoison.

`C-t w'

`C-t C-w'
     Display the list of managed windows. The current window is
     highlighted.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Commands,  Next: Startup file,  Prev: Keystrokes,  Up: Top

ratpoison commands
******************

   ratpoison can be controlled with commands (so called colon-commands).
The summary of available commands is listed below:

`abort'
     This is a pretty useless command. By default, it is bound to `C-t
     g', and its purpose is to abort other commands.

`bind KEY COMMAND'
     Bind a key to a ratpoison command. This command takes two
     arguments: the key to bind and the command to run. For example, to
     bind `C-t R' to restart ratpoison:

          : bind R exec ratpoison --restart

`clock'
     Show current time. Disappears after 5 seconds, like all other info
     bars.  In the default setup, the `C-t a' keystroke is bound to
     this command.

`colon COMMAND'
     Run a ratpoison command.

`delete'
     This deletes the current window. You can access it with the `C-t k'
     keystroke.

`escape KEY'
     Set the prefix to to KEY. For example `escape ^b' sets the prefix
     key to <C-b>.

`generate'
     Send a `C-t' to the current window.

`exec COMMAND'
     Execute a shell command. By default, `C-t !' does this.

`kill'
     This destroys the current window. Normally you should only need to
     use `delete', but just incase you need to rip the heart out of a
     misbehaving window this command should do the trick. Also
     available as `C-t K'.

`maximize'
     Maximize the current window, just like `C-t m' would do.

`next'
     This jumps you to the next window in the window list. This one is
     bound to three keystrokes, namely `C-t n', `C-t space', and `C-t
     enter'.

`newwm WINDOW-MANAGER'
     This is a bad-bad command. It kills ratpoison and revives that
     ugly rodent! Yuck! Avoid!

`other'
     This toggles between the current window and the last window. By
     default, this is bound to `C-t C-t'.

`prev'
     This jumps you to the previous window in the window list. By
     default, this is bound to `C-t p'.

`select N'
     This jumps you to window N where N is the window number as shown
     in the Program Bar. You can do the same trick with `C-N' too.

`select WINDOW-NAME'
     Go to a window by name. A shortcut is `C-t ''.

`source FILE'
     Read a text file containing ratpoison commands.

`title TITLE'
     Rename the currently active window. This name will remain for the
     duration of the window's life, unless you change it again. By
     default, the `C-t A' keystroke is bound to this command.

`version'
     Print ratpoison version.  By default, this is bound to `C-t v'.

`windows'
     This displays the Program Bar which displays the windows you
     currently have running. The number before each window name is used
     to jump to that window. You can do this by typing `C-t N' where N
     is the number of the window. Note that only windows with numbers
     from 0 to 9 can be referenced using this keystoke.  To reach
     windows with numbers greater than 9, use `C-t '' and type the
     number at the prompt.

     After 5 seconds the Program Bar disappears.

     This command is bound to `C-t w' by default.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Startup file,  Prev: Commands,  Up: Top

Startup file
************

   Now you've probably read the web page, and you've no doubt dug up
some old file I forgot about. You're probably wondering, "say, didn't
he say there was no configuration file to customize?". Ok, ya got me.
But lets be honest here: ratpoison is so pure and fast-acting,
customization is barely worth the extra effort. In the off chance that
you need to make ratpoison your own, we now support it.

   On startup ratpoison looks for `~/.ratpoisonrc' and runs it through
the command parser. If `~/.ratpoisonrc' does not exist, ratpoison tries
`/etc/ratpoisonrc'. This means any command you can bind a key to or run
at the command prompt (`C-t :') you can execute in this rc file.

   It adds roughly 320 bytes to ratpoison on a glibc6-i386 machine. Its
a little steep for a feature and we are attempting to squeeze the fat.



Tag Table:
Node: Top1083
Node: About1585
Node: Contacting2152
Node: General Use2722
Node: Keystrokes3826
Node: Commands5712
Node: Startup file8858

End Tag Table
