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??
* Splitting The Screen::        When you want to see more than one window
* Keystrokes::                  Key commands and functionality
* Commands::                    ratpoison commands
* Command Line Arguments::      ratpoison command-line actions
* 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 modeled after GNU Screen which has done wonders in
the virtual terminal market.

   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: Splitting The Screen,  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 ''.

   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: Splitting The Screen,  Next: Keystrokes,  Prev: General Use,  Up: Top

Splitting The Screen
********************

   Sometimes you may want to see two or more windows at the same time.
ratpoison allows you to split the screen into frames. Each frame can
then contain 1 window. To split the current frame horizontally use `C-t
s'. To split the current frame vertically use `C-t S'. If you have
enough windows, you'll notice that the new frame will find a window for
itself. You can now use the normal navigation commands to switch
windows in the frame. Note, however, that if you switch by name or
number to a window that is already in another frame, you'll switch to
that frame.

   Before too long, you'll probably want to switch to another frame. Use
`C-t tab' to cycle through the frames. If you want to remove a frame
use `C-t R'. ratpoison automatically adjusts the size of the other
frames to take up the free space. Unfortunately ratpoison may not
always fill it in the way you might like it to.

   Finally, when you've had enough of the splitting and you just want
good ol' full screen ratpoison press `C-t Q' to remove all splits and
leave you with the current window full screen.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Keystrokes,  Next: Commands,  Prev: Splitting The Screen,  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 -'
     Select no window, essentially hiding all windows in the current
     frame.

`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.

`C-t s'
     Split the current window horizontally in two. The last accessed
     window not occupying a frame will be the second window.

`C-t S'
     Split the current window vertically in two. The last accessed
     window not occupying a frame will be the second window.

`C-t tab'
     Cycle through ratpoison's frames.

`C-t Q'
     Kill all frames but the current one.

`C-t R'
     Kill the current frame. This is a no-op if there is only one frame.

`C-t b'

`C-t C-b'
     Banish the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen.

`C-t ?'
     Display a help screen

`C-t f'

`C-t C-f'
     Indicate which frame is the current frame.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Commands,  Next: Command Line Arguments,  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.

`banish'
     Banish the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen.

`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.

`curframe'
     Indicate which frame is the current frame.

`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 C-b' sets the prefix
     key to <C-b>.

`focus'
     cycle through ratpoison's frames.

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

`help'
     Display a help screen that lists all bound keystrokes.

`echo TEXT'
     Display TEXT as a message.

`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 in case 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!

`number N'
     Set the current window's number to N. If another window occupies
     the requested number already, then the windows' numbers are
     swapped.

`only'
     Kill all frames but the current one.

`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'.

`quit'
     Quit ratpoison.

`remove'
     Kill the current frame. This is a no-op if there is only one frame.

`rudeness N'
     The rudeness command lets you decide what windows pop-up
     automatically and when. This is often useful for those deep hack
     sessions when you absolutely can't be disturbed.

     There are two kinds of windows: normal windows (like an xterm) and
     transient windows (generally pop-up dialog boxes). When a client
     program wants to display a new window it makes a requests to
     ratpoison. ratpoison then decides whether to grant the request and
     display the window or ignore it. A client program can also request
     that one of its windows be raised. You can customize ratpoison to
     either honour these requests (the default operation) or ignore
     them.

     N is a number from 0 to 15. Each of the four bits determine which
     requests ratpoison grants.

    Bit 0
          Tells ratpoison to grant raise requests on transient windows

    Bit 1
          Tells ratpoison to grant raise requests on normal windows

    Bit 2
          Tells ratpoison to grant display requests on new transient
          windows

    Bit 3
          Tells ratpoison to grant display requests on new normal
          windows

     For example, if you wanted only wanted to grant transient windows
     raise requests and display requests you would type `rudeness 5'.
     If a request is not granted ratpoison will tell you about the
     request with a message like `Raise request from window 1 (emacs)'.

`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. To
     select no window, blanking the current frame, type `select -'.

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

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

`split'

`hsplit'
     Split the current window horizontally in two. The last accessed
     window not occupying a frame will be the second window.

`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.

`unbind KEY'
     Unbind a keystroke.

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

`vsplit'
     Split the current window vertically in two. The last accessed
     window not occupying a frame will be the second window.

`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 keystroke.  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.

     When invoked from the command-line like this,

          $ ratpoison -c windows

     Instead of a message bar, you will get a list of the windows
     printed to stdout. This allows you to write more advanced scripts
     than simple keyboard macros.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Command Line Arguments,  Next: Startup file,  Prev: Commands,  Up: Top

Command Line Arguments
**********************

   ratpoison supports command line arguments to request various actions
when invoking ratpoison.

`-h, --help'
     Display this help screen

`-v, --version'
     Display the version

`-r, --restart'
     Restart ratpoison

`-k, --kill'
     Kill ratpoison

`-c, --command'
     Send ratpoison a colon-command. This allows you to control
     ratpoison from the command-line. with the `-c' option you can
     script ratpoison using any programming language that can spawn a
     process. Some commands behave differently when invoked this way.
     Currently the only command that behaves differently is the
     `windows' command. Instead of displaying the window list in a
     message window, it is printed to stdout. The output can then be
     captured and used in the ratpoison script. For instance, this
     could be used to check whether a program is running and if it is
     switch to its window otherwise launch it.


File: ratpoison.info,  Node: Startup file,  Prev: Command Line Arguments,  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?". Okay, 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.



Tag Table:
Node: Top1083
Node: About1722
Node: Contacting2309
Node: General Use2879
Node: Splitting The Screen3993
Node: Keystrokes5216
Node: Commands7847
Node: Command Line Arguments13720
Node: Startup file14800

End Tag Table
