RATPOISON(1)

NAME
ratpoison - fatless X window manager

SYNOPSIS
ratpoison [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
ratpoison is a simple Window Manager with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence. 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 is a very simple window manager. Each window is maximized and has no border decorations.

KEYSTROKES
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 :
    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 i, C-t C-i
    Display information about the current window.

C-t k, C-t C-k
    Close the current window.

C-t l, C-t C-l
    Redisplay 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 l' will force the current window to maximize.

C-t m, C-t C-m
    Display the last message.

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 M-tab
    Switch to the last focused frame.

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.

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.

alias NAME COMMAND
    An alias allows you to name a ratpoison command something else. For instance, if you frequently open emacs you may want to make an alias called `emacs' that loads emacs. You would do it like this: : alias emacs exec emacs An alias is treated exactly like a colon command in that you can call it from the colon prompt, bind it to a key, and call it non-interactively with `ratpoison -c'.

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 restart If no command is specified then bind works exactly like `unbind', unbinding the key.

chdir
    Change the current directory for ratpoison.

colon COMMAND
    Run a ratpoison command.

curframe
    Indicate which frame is the current frame.

defbarborder N
    Set the border width for the bar. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defbargravity G
    Set the default alignment for the message bar. See the `gravity' command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defbarpadding X Y
    Set the horizontal and vertical padding inside the bar. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defbgcolor COLOR
    Set the background color for all text ratpoison displays. COLOR is any valid X11 color.

defborder N
    Set the border width for all windows. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

deffgcolor COLOR
    Set the foreground color for all text ratpoison displays. COLOR is any valid X11 color.

deffont FONT
    Set the font. FONT is a font string like `9x15bold'.

definputwidth N
    Set the width of the input window. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defmaxsizegravity G
    Set the default alignment for windows with maxsize hints. See the `gravity' command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defpadding LEFT TOP RIGHT BOTTOM
    Set the padding around the edge of the screen. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

deftransgravity G
    Set the default alignment for transient windows. See the `gravity' command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defwaitcursor N
    Set whether the rat cursor should change into a square when waiting for a key. A non-zero number means change the cursor. Zero means don't change the cursor. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defwinfmt FMT
    Set the default window format for the `windows' command. By default it is `N-W'. The following is a list of valid format characters: `%n' The window number `%s' Window status (current window, last window, etc) `%t' Window Name `%a' Application Name `%c' Resource Class `%i' X11 Window ID `%l' A unique number based on when the window was last accessed. The higher the number, the more recently it was accessed. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defwingravity G
    Set the default gravity for normal windows. See the `gravity' command. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

defwinname NAME
    There are three resources ratpoison can get a window's name from: the WMNAME hint, the res_name from the WMCLASS hint, or the res_class from the WMCLASS hint. NAME can be `title' which is what most window managers put in the title bar, `name' which is the res_name, or `class' which is the res_class. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

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

echo TEXT
    Display TEXT as a message.

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

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

focus
    cycle through ratpoison's frames.

focuslast
    Switch to the last focused frame.

focusup
    Move to the frame above the current frame.

focusdown
    Move to the frame below the current frame.

focusleft
    Move to the frame left of the current frame.

focusright
    Move to the frame right of the current frame.

gravity G
    Change the gravity of the current window. A normal window will default to the top-left corner of the screen, but it can also be placed at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Valid values for G are the 8 directions `northwest', `north', `northeast', `east', `southeast', `south', `southwest' and `west', clockwise from the top left corner. `center' will center the window in the frame. G and can be abbreviated to one or two letters.

help
    Display a help screen that lists all bound keystrokes.

info
    Display information about the current window.

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'.

lastmsg
    Display the last message.

link KEY
    Call the command that KEY is bound to. For instance `link C-t' would call the command `other' and switch to the last window.

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

msgwait N
    Set the bar's timeout in seconds. When called non-interactively with no arguments, the current setting is returned.

redisplay
    Redisplay the current window, just like `C-t l' would do.

restart
    Restart ratpoison.

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

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'.

number N TARGET
    Set a window's number to N. If another window occupies the requested number already, then the windows' numbers are swapped. The second argument, TARGET, is optional. It should be the number of the window whose number will be changed. If TARGET is omitted ratpoison defaults to the current window.

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 ''.

setenv ENV VALUE
    Set the environment variable ENV to VALUE

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.

startup_message STATE
    Turn on or off the startup_message. This is most useful in your ~/.ratpoisonrc file. STATE can be `on' or `off'.

time
    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.

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.

unsetenv ENV
    Clear the value of the environment variable, ENV.

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 FMT
    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. This is where FMT comes into play. If `windows' is given an arg it treats it as the format string as described in `defwinfmt'.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Display this help screen

-v, --version
    Display the version

-c cmd, --command cmd
    Send ratpoison a colon-command.

FILES

/etc/ratpoisonrc
    System-wide configuration file.

$HOME/.ratpoisonrc
    User configuration file.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <ratpoison-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002 Shawn Betts
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
ratmenu(1), X(7x)

The full documentation for ratpoison is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ratpoison programs are properly installed at your site, the command

    info ratpoison

should give you access to the complete manual.

AUTHOR
Ratpoison was written by Shawn Betts <sabetts@users.sourceforge.net>. This manual page was written by Gergely Nagy <8@free.bsd.hu> and updated by Shawn Betts <sabetts@users.sourceforge.net> and Doug Kearns <djkea2@mugca.cc.monash.edu.au>.