--- name: "FvwmIconMan" section: "1x" platform: "linux" package: "fvwm-common" version: "2.0.46-BETA-3" release: "Debian 2.1 (Slink)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/FvwmIconMan/1x" --- # FvwmIconMan(1x) an Fvwm Icon Manager ## NAME FvwmIconMan - an Fvwm Icon Manager ## SYNOPSIS FvwmIconMan is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will work. ## DESCRIPTION FvwmIconMan is an icon manager modeled after the TWM icon manager. The user may have multiple icon managers, each of which armed with a list of window types which it manages. For example, the user may have one manager which lists only emacs windows, and another which lists everything else. You may also specify what resolution each icon manager uses, for example, one icon manager may manage windows on all desks, and another may manage only those on the current desk, or page. If you have applied the MiniIcons patch to fvwm2, then FvwmIconMan can display the miniature icons for its managed windows. The managers may have a maximum number of columns (and so grows vertically), a maximum number of rows (and then grows horizontally), or stay at a fixed size, and adjust the size of the window buttons to fit (think win95's Taskbar). And when support is compiled in for the X Shape extension, then the manager windows may be shaped. You can specify actions to be run when mouse, or key events are received. For example, you could bind the first mouse button to iconify the selected window, and make bindings for the arrow keys to navigate the manager window without the mouse. FvwmIconMan can be set to display which window currently has the keyboard focus, and by binding the select event (see below) to the fvwm Focus function, you can emulate the TWM icon manager's behavior. ## INITIALIZATION During initialization, FvwmIconMan searches though the fvwm configuration file for the options which are described below. It is highly recommended that you make FvwmIconMan be a sticky window. And if you want to make use of the followfocus option, and/or binding an action to Focus, then you should make FvwmIconMan clicktofocus. Also, when using the Shape option, it's recommended that the FvwmIconMan window not be decorated at all by fvwm. ## INVOCATION FvwmIconMan can be invoked by inserting the line 'Module FvwmIconMan' in the .fvwmrc file. If FvwmIconMan is to be spawned during fvwm's initialization, then this line should be placed in the InitFunction and ResetFunction declarations, or it can be bound to a menu, mouse button, or keystroke to invoke it later. FvwmIconMan should be placed in the ModulePath (defined in the .fvwmrc file) in order for fvwm to find it. If you wish to run FvwmIconMan in a transient mode, such as with the built in window list, then pass Transient as an argument. The invocation "Module FvwmIconMan Transient" will do nicely. In this mode, FvwmIconMan will pop up one manager window directly under the cursor. When the mouse button is released, it will execute the appropriate action, and then exit. Things are somewhat complicated by the fact that you can specify that FvwmIconMan create multiple manager windows, behavior which is unsuitable when running transiently. So, when running transiently, FvwmIconMan will only create one manager window. Use the manager id 'transient' to specify options for this manager window. ## CONFIGURATION OPTIONS REFERENCE CHART FvwmIconMan has acquired quite a few options. I assume others share my dislike of paging though a long manpage, so here is a terse reference chart describing the available options. They are described in more detail in the next section. ``` Name Description Default action binds command to event Mouse 0 N sendcommand Iconify background default background gray buttongeometry size of button in pixels 100x17 dontshow list of windows to ignore drawicons use miniicons false focusandselectbutton flat black white focusbutton style for focused buttons up black white followfocus show which win has focus false font 8x13 foreground default text color white format describes button label "%c: %i" iconname manger icon name FvwmIconMan managergeometry size of manager in buttons 0x1 nummanagers number of managers 1 plainbutton style for normal buttons up white gray resolution global, desk, or page global selectbutton style for selected buttons flat white gray shape use shape extension false show list of windows to show sort keep managers sorted true title manager title FvwmIconMan titlebutton style for title button raisededge white gray usewinlist honor WinListSkip? true ``` ## CONFIGURATION OPTIONS With the exception of the nummanagers option, all of the options may be defined on a per-manager basis. So, for example, the user may have his emacs manager with a red foreground, and his xterm manager with a blue one. A configuration line may therefore have one of two forms: - \*FvwmIconMan\*optionname optionvalue To specify that the *optionname* takes the value *optionvalue* for all managers. - \*FvwmIconMan\*managerid\*optionname optionvalue To specify that the option *optionname* takes the value *optionvalue* for manager *managerid*. *Mangerid* may either be a positive integer, or the string "transient". An integral id refers to managers which FvwmIconMan creates when running normally, and an id of "transient" refers to the single manager which FvwmIconMan creates when running transiently. The following options may be specified: - \*FvwmIconMan\*nummanagers *num* *num* is a positive integer specifying the total number of icon managers. Since FvwmIconMan would like to know how many managers there are before handling any manager specific options, this should come first. The default is 1. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]action *type* *binding* Binds an FvwmIconMan command to an event. *Type* may be one of the values: Key, Mouse, or Select. Actions are described in the following section ACTIONS. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]background *background* Specifies the default background color. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]buttongeometry *geometry* Specifies the initial geometry of an individual button in pixels. If the specified height is 0, then the button height is determined from the font size. X and Y coordinates are ignored. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]drawicons *boolean* If your version of fvwm2 is capable of using MiniIcons, then this option determines if FvwmIconMan displays the MiniIcons. Otherwise, it generates an error message. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]focusbutton *style* \[*forecolor* *backcolor*\] Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows have the keyboard focus. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]focusandselectbutton *style* \[*forecolor* *backcolor*\] Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons which are both selected, and have the keyboard focus. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]font *font* Specifies the font to be used for labeling the buttons. The default is 8x13. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]foreground *foreground* Specifies the default foreground color. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]format *formatstring* A printf like format string which describes the string to be printed in the manager window for each managed window. Possible flags are: %t, %i, %c, and %r for the window's title, icon, class, or resource name, respectively. The default is "%c: %i". **Warning**: m4 reserves the word *format*, so if you use m4, take appropriate action. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]iconname *iconstring* Specifies the window icon name for that manager window. *Iconstring* may either be a single word, or a string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan". - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]managergeometry *geometry* Specifies the initial geometry of the manager, in units of buttons. If *height* is 0, then the manager will use *width* columns, and will grow vertically once it has more than *width* windows. Likewise, if *width* is 0, it will use *height* rows, and grow horizontally. If both are nonzero, then the manager window will be exactly that size, and stay that way. As columns are created, the buttons will narrow to accommodate. If the geometry is specified with a negative y coordinate, then the window manager will grow upwards. Otherwise, it will grow downwards. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]plainbutton *style* \[*forecolor* *backcolor*\] Specifies how normal buttons look. *style* may be one of *flat*, *up*, *down*, *raisededge*, or *sunkedge*, and describes how the button is drawn. The color options are both optional, and if not set, then the default colors are used. If on a monochrome screen, then the *style* option is ignored, but must still be set. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]resolution *resolution* Specifies when the manager will display an entry for a certain window. *resolution* may take one of the following values: global, desk, or page. If global, then all windows of the appropriate type (see the show and dontshow options below) will be shown. If desk, then only those windows on the current desk will be down. And if page, then only those windows on the current page will be shown. The default is global. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]selectbutton *style* \[*forecolor* *backcolor*\] Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons when the mouse is over them. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]shape *boolean* If *True*, then use make the window shaped. Probably only useful if you have multiple columns or rows. If FvwmIconMan wasn't compiled to support the Shape extension, this generates an error message. When using shaped windows, it's recommended that a fvwm style is made for FvwmIconMan that has no borders. Otherwise, fvwm will get confused. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]title *titlestring* Specifies the window title string for that manager window. *Titlestring* may either be a single word, or a string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan". This will be drawn in the titlebar of the manager window, if any, and in the title button, which is the button drawn when the manager is empty. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]titlebutton *style* \[*forecolor* *backcolor*\] Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of the title button (the button drawn when the manager is empty). The manager's title is drawn in the title button. The two following options control which windows get handled by which managers. A manager can get two lists, one of windows to show, and one of windows to ignore. If only the *show* list is given, then that manager will show only the windows in the list. If only the *dontshow* list is given, then the manager will show all windows except those in the list. If both lists are given, then a window will be shown if it is not in the *dontshow* list, and in the *show* list. And finally, if neither list is given, then the manager will handle all windows. Each list is made up of patterns of the form *type=pattern*, where type is one of *class*, *resource*, *title*, or *icon*, and pattern is an expression of the same format used in the fvwm style command (minimalistic shell pattern matching). Quotes around the pattern will be taken as part of the expression. If a window could be handled by more than one manager, then the manager with the lowest id gets it. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]show *pattern list* If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may be handled by this manager. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]dontshow *pattern list* If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may not be handled by this manager. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]usewinlist *boolean* If *true*, then honor the WinListSkip style flag. Otherwise, all windows are subject to possible management according to the show and dontshow lists. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]followfocus *boolean* If *true*, then the button appearance reflects which window currently has focus. Default is false. - \*FvwmIconMan\*\[id\*\]sort *boolean* If *true*, then the icon manager is kept sorted. Default is true. ## ACTIONS Actions are commands which may be bound to an event of the type: a keypress, a mouse click, or the mouse entering a window manager button - denoted by the action types *Key*, *Mouse*, and *Select*. Normally, actions bound to a mouse click are executed when the button is pressed. In transient mode, the action is executed when the button is released, since it is assumed that FvwmIconMan was bound to some mouse event. A tip/warning: FvwmIconMan still keeps track of the mouse button and any modifier keys in this case, so if you bind FvwmIconMan to say, meta-button3, then it would be wise to ensure that the action you want to execute will be executed when the meta-button3 event occurs (which would be the button release, assuming you kept your finger on the meta key). The syntax for actions are: - **Key actions**: Key *Keysym* *Modifiers* *FunctionList* *Keysym* and *Modifiers* are exactly the same as for the fvwm *Key* command. - **Mouse actions**: Mouse *Button* *Modifiers* *FunctionList* *Button* and *Modifiers* are exactly the same as for the fvwm *Mouse* command. - **Select actions**: Select *FunctionList* A *FunctionList* is a sequence of commands separated by commas. They are executed in left to right order, in one shared context - which currently only contains a pointer to the "current" button. If a button is selected (typically by the mouse pointer sitting on it) when the action is executed, then the current button is initialized to that button. Otherwise, it points to nothing. Most of the available commands then modify this "current" button, either by moving it around, making it become the selected button, or sending commands to fvwm acting on the window represented by that button. Note that while this current button is initialized to be the selected button, the selected button does not implicitly follow it around. This way, the user can send commands to various windows, without changing which button is selected. Commands take five types of arguments: *Integer*, *Manager*, *Window*, *Button*, and *String*. A *String* is a string specified exactly as for fvwm - either in quotes or as a single word not in quotes. Again, you may bind a sequence of commands to an event, by listing them separated by commas. *Window* and *Button* types look exactly the same in the .fvwm2rc file, but are interpreted as either specifying a managed window, or a FvwmIconMan button representing a window. They can either be an integer (which is interpreted module N where N is the number of buttons - so 0 is the first and -1 is the last), or one of the strings: *Select*, *Focus*, *Up*, *Down*, *Right*, *Left*, *Next*, *Prev*. *Select* and *Focus* refer to the currently selected or focused button or window. *Up*, *Down*, *Right*, and *Left* refer to the button or window above, below, to the right of, or to the left of the current button in the manager window, allowing navigation around the manager window. *Next* and *Prev* designates the window, button, or manager after or before the current button, allowing navigation of the one dimensional list of windows which is drawn in the manager window. If the manager is sorted, *Next* and *Prev* move through the windows in alphabetical order. The *Manager* type can either be an integer, *Next*, or *Prev*. The meaning is analogous to that of the *Button* type, but in terms of the integral index of the managers, restricted to managers which are nonempty. The following functions are currently defined: - bif *Button* *Integer/String* A relative branch instruction. If *Button* is *Select* or *Focus*, then take the branch if there is a selected button or a focused button. If *Button* is an integer, then branch if nonzero. If it is one of *Up*, *Down*, *Right*, *Left*, *Next*, *Prev*, then the branch is taken when the current button can move in that direction. If the branch is taken, then *Integer* commands are skipped. No backwards branches are allowed. - bifn *Button* *Integer/String* The complement of bif. The branch is taken if *Button* evaluates to false, by the criteria listed for bif. - gotobutton *Button* Sets current button to *Button*. If *Button* is an integer, then the current button is set to *Button* modulo the number of buttons, in the whichever manager contains the selected button, if any. - gotomanager *Manager* Sets button to button 0 of *Manager*. This will only go to a visible, nonempty manager. So an integral argument is taken modulo the number of such managers. - jmp *Integer/String* Executes a relative jump of *Integer* instructions. Backwards jumps are not allowed. The jump is computed relative to the instruction following the jmp. - label *String* Provides a label that previous instructions can jump to. It will not be visible to subsequent jump instructions, and the same label can be used multiple times in the same instruction list (though it would be perverse to do so.) - print *String* Prints *String* to the console. Useful for debugging actions. - quit Quits FvwmIconMan. - ret Stop executing the entire action. - select Selects the current button, if any. If a select action has been specified, it will then be run. Therefore, it is considered unwise to set the select button in the select action. - sendcommand *Command* Sends the fvwm command *Command* to the window represented by the current button, if any. - warp Warps cursor to current button, if any. **Examples:** ``` gotobutton select, gotobutton Down, select ``` Selects the button below the currently selected button. Since the current button is already initialized to the selected button, this may be shortened to "gotobutton Down , select". ``` gotobutton Up, select ``` Selects the button above the currently selected button. ``` gotobutton 0, select ``` Selects the first button of the current manager. If there is no current manager, which is the case when no button is selected, then this does nothing. ``` gotobutton -1, select ``` Selects the last button of the current manager. ``` gotobutton focus, select ``` Selects the button corresponding to the focused window. ``` gotobutton focus, Iconify ``` Sends the fvwm command Iconify to the focused window. Note that this does not change the selected button. ``` bif Next 3, gotobutton 0, select, ret, gotobutton Next, select ``` If a button is selected, and it's the last button, go to button 0. If it's not the last button, go to the next button. Otherwise, do nothing. Basically, this action cycles through all buttons in the current manager. ``` bif select 7, bif focus 3, gotomanager 0, select, ret, gotobutton focus, select, ret, gotobutton down, select ``` This is good for sending to FvwmIconMan with a SendToModule command. If there is a selected button, it moves down. Otherwise, if there is a focused button, it is selected. Otherwise, button 0 of manager 0 gets selected. ``` bif select Select, bif focus Focus, gotomanager 0, select, ret, label Focus, gotobutton focus, select, ret, label Select, gotobutton down, select ``` Same as previous, but using the label instruction. In addition to being bound to keys and mice, actions can be sent from fvwm to FvwmIconMan via the SendToModule command. Don't quote the command when using SendToModule. Also, due to a bug in the current version of fvwm2, don't quote FvwmIconMan either. ## SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS This first example is of a the simplest invocation of FvwmIconMan, which only has one manager, and handles all windows: ``` ############################################################## # Load any modules which should be started during # fvwm initialization ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/fvwm:/usr/bin/X11 Module FvwmIconMan # Make FvwmIconMan title-bar-less, sticky, and give it an icon Style "Fvwm*" Icon toolbox.xpm,NoTitle,NoHandles,Sticky Style "FvwmIconMan" HandleWidth 5, Handles, BorderWidth 5 ############################################################## ############################################################## #Definitions used by the modules *FvwmIconMan*nummanagers 1 *FvwmIconMan*resolution global *FvwmIconMan*background slategrey *FvwmIconMan*foreground white *FvwmIconMan*font 7x13 *FvwmIconMan*buttongeometry 100x0 *FvwmIconMan*managergeometry 1x0-0+0 ``` This example is the Reader's Digest version of my personal configuration. It has two managers, one for emacs and one for everything else, minus things with no icon title. Only windows on the current page are displayed. The use of the *drawicons* and *shape* options requires that fvwm and FvwmIconMan we compiled with the correct options. Note how the geometry and show options are specified per manager, and the others are common to all: ``` Style "FvwmIconMan" NoTitle, Sticky, WindowListSkip, BorderWidth 0 Style "FvwmIconMan" HandleWidth 0 Key F8 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, gotobutton prev, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow Key F9 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, gotobutton next, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow *FvwmIconMan*numManagers 2 *FvwmIconMan*Resolution page *FvwmIconMan*background steelblue *FvwmIconMan*foreground white *FvwmIconMan*font 7x13 *FvwmIconMan*usewinlist true *FvwmIconMan*drawicons true *FvwmIconMan*shape true *FvwmIconMan*followfocus true *FvwmIconMan*sort true *FvwmIconMan*plainbutton up white steelblue *FvwmIconMan*selectbutton down white steelblue *FvwmIconMan*focusbutton up white brown *FvwmIconMan*focusandselectButton down white brown *FvwmIconMan*titleButton raisededge white steelblue *FvwmIconMan*1*title "Emacs windows" *FvwmIconMan*1*iconname "FvwmIconMan: Emacs" *FvwmIconMan*1*format "%i" *FvwmIconMan*1*show resource=emacs resource=gemacs *FvwmIconMan*1*managergeometry 1x0-400+0 *FvwmIconMan*1*buttongeometry 200x0 *FvwmIconMan*2*title "All windows" *FvwmIconMan*2*iconname "FvwmIconMan: all" *FvwmIconMan*2*format "%c: %i" *FvwmIconMan*2*dontshow icon=Untitled *FvwmIconMan*2*managergeometry 2x4-0+0 *FvwmIconMan*2*buttongeometry 200x0 *FvwmIconMan*transient*geometry 194x100 *FvwmIconMan*transient*dontshow icon=Untitled *FvwmIconMan*transient*action Mouse 0 A sendcommand select select Iconify *FvwmIconMan*action Mouse 1 N sendcommand Iconify *FvwmIconMan*action Mouse 2 N sendcommand WarpToWindow *FvwmIconMan*action Mouse 3 N sendcommand "Module FvwmIdent FvwmIdent" *FvwmIconMan*action Key Left N gotobutton Left, select *FvwmIconMan*action Key Right N gotobutton Right, select *FvwmIconMan*action Key Up N gotobutton Up, select *FvwmIconMan*action Key Down N gotobutton Down, select *FvwmIconMan*action Key q N quit ``` ## UNFINISHED BUSINESS There is one bug that I know of. A honest to goodness solution to this would be appreciated. When an icon manager is set to grow upwards or leftwards, on some machines it may wander occasionally. It doesn't handle windows without resource names as gracefully as it should. ## AUTHOR Brady Montz (bradym@cs.arizona.edu). ## THANKS ``` Thanks to: David Berson (berson@cs.pitt.edu), Josh M. Osborne (stripes@va.pubnix.com, Bjorn Victor (victor@delial.docs.uu.se), Adam Rice (wysiwyg@glympton.airtime.co.uk). ```