--- name: "bemenu" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "bemenu" version: "0.6.23-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/bemenu" --- # bemenu(1) dynamic menu inspired by dmenu(1) ## NAME **bemenu** - dynamic menu inspired by [**dmenu**(1)](/dmenu/1.md) ## SYNOPSIS **bemenu** \[**-hCiKTvwx**\] \[**-I** \<*index*\>\] \[**-l** \<*lines*\>\] \[**-P** \<*prefix*\>\] \[**-p** \<*prompt*\>\] \[**--ifne**\] \[**--scrollbar** *none*\|*always*\|*autohide*\] \[**--binding** *vim*\] \[**--fork**\] \[*backend\_options*\] **bemenu-run** \[**-hCiKTvwx**\] \[**-I** \<*index*\>\] \[**-l** \<*lines*\>\] \[**-P** \<*prefix*\>\] \[**-p** \<*prompt*\>\] \[**--ifne**\] \[**--scrollbar** *none*\|*always*\|*autohide*\] \[**--binding** *vim*\] \[**--fork**\] \[**--no-exec**\] \[*backend-options*\] ## DESCRIPTION **bemenu** is a dynamic menu for [**tty**(4)](/tty/4.md) (using [**ncurses**(3)](/ncurses/3.md)), X11 and Wayland, inspired by [**dmenu**(1)](/dmenu/1.md). It reads a list of newline-separated items from standard input and then presents them as a list, where the user can select one or more of them. When pressing **\**, the selected items are printed to standard output (one per line) and **bemenu** exits. Entering text will filter the items to those that match the input. If the number of items exceeds the size of the list, the items will be paginated. **bemenu-run** is a special-case invocation of **bemenu**, where the input is the list of executables under PATH and the selected items are executed. ## OPTIONS - **-h, --help** Print a help message to standard output and exit. - **-C, --no-cursor** Disable all cursor events. - **-I, --index** \<*index*\> Highlight the item at *index* at the start. Indices start at 0. By default, the first item is highlighted. - **-i, --ignorecase** Filter items case-insensitively. - **-K, --no-keyboard** Disable all keyboard events. **-l, --list** "\<*number*\> *down*\|*up*" List items vertically *down* or *up* with the given *number* of lines. - **-P, --prefix** \<*prefix*\> Display *prefix* before the highlighted item in a vertical list. - **-p, --prompt** \<*prompt*\> Defines the *prompt* text to be displayed to the left of the input field. Defaults to ‘bemenu’. - **-s, --no-spacing** Disable the title spacing on entries. - **-T, --no-touch** Disable all touch events. - **-v, --version** Print the **bemenu** version number to standard output and exit. - **-w, --wrap** Advancing past the end of the list returns you to the start. - **-x, --password** *none*\|*hide*\|*indicator* Specify how the filter text should be displayed: | | | | --- | --- | | **none** | Display the input (the default). | | **hide** | Do not display any input. | | **indicator** | Replace input with asterisks. | - **--fixed-height** Prevent the display from changing height on filter. - **--accept-single** Immediately return if there is only one item. - **--auto-select** When one entry is left, automatically select it. - **--binding** Use alternative key bindings. Available options: vim - **--fork** Always [**fork**(2)](/fork/2.md) before executing the selections. Disabled by default when using the terminal backend. - **--ifne** Only display menu if there are items. - **--single-instance** Force a single menu instance. - **--no-exec** Print the selected items to standard output instead of executing them. - **--scrollbar** *none*\|*always*\|*autohide* Specify when to show a scrollbar for vertical lists: | | | | --- | --- | | **none** | Never display a scrollbar (the default). | | **always** | Always display a scrollbar. | | **autohide** | Only display a scrollbar when the number of items exceeds the number of lines. | - **-e, --vim-esc-exits** Exit bemenu when pressing escape in normal mode for vim bindings. - **-N, --vim-normal-mode** Start in normal mode for vim bindings. - **-F, --filter** Filter items for a given string before showing the menu. Affects **--ifne** and **--accept-single** ### Backend options These options are only available on backends specified in the parentheses: **-b, --bottom** (Wayland, X11) The list will appear at the bottom of the screen. **-c, --center** (Wayland, X11) The list will appear at the center of the screen. (wx) **-f, --grab** (Wayland, X11) Show the **bemenu** window whilst reading the items. **-B, --border** (Wayland, X11) Specify the width of the border in pixels around the menu. **--bdr** (Wayland, X11) Specify the border color. **-R, --border-radius** (Wayland, X11) Specify the radius of the border around the menu (0 = no curved borders). **-H, --line-height** \<*height*\> (Wayland, X11) Specify the *height* in point size to make each entry. **--ch** (Wayland, X11) Specify the height of the cursor (0 = scales with line height). **--cw** (Wayland, X11) Specify the width of the cursor. **-m, --monitor** \<*index*\> (Wayland, X11) Specify the monitor *index* where the list should appear. Monitor indices start at zero. The interpretation of the given argument depends on the utilized backend. With X11 and Wayland, a value of ‘-1’ or **focused** indicates that the current monitor should be used (the default). With Wayland, the *index* should be a string specifying a specific monitor name. The value ‘-2’ or **all** indicates that the list should appear on all monitors. - **-n, --no-overlap** (Wayland) Set the **bemenu** window to be on top of any other panels. **-M, --margin** \<*margin*\> (Wayland, X11) Specify the *margin* (empty space) in pixels to leave between menu and vertical view borders. **bemenu** will reduce it's size to fit in space between gaps. **--hp** (Wayland, X11) Specify the horizontal padding for the entries in single line mode. **-W, --width-factor** \<*factor*\> (Wayland, X11) Specify the relative width factor as a floating point number. It makes sense to set it between 0 and 1 to define how much of the screen width **bemenu** will use. However, **bemenu** will still respect *margin*, so if resulting size is greater than space between gaps, **bemenu** will ignore *factor* and use available space instead. **--fn** \<*name* \[*size*\]\> (Wayland, X11) Specify the font family *name* and *size* to be used. For more options, consult the *Pango Reference Manual* for **pango\_font\_description\_from\_string**(). The following options control the colours for various parts of the list for the Wayland and X11 backends. Each takes an argument in the form of: **#***RGB*\[*A*\] where *R*, *G*, *B* and *A* are hexadecimal integers from 00–FF that control the red, green, blue and alpha-transparency channels. **--tb** \<*color*\> Title background. **--tf** \<*color*\> Title foreground. **--fb** \<*color*\> Filter background. **--ff** \<*color*\> Filter foreground **--cb** \<*color*\> Cursor background. **--cf** \<*color*\> Cursor foreground **--nb** \<*color*\> Normal background. **--nf** \<*color*\> Normal foreground. **--hb** \<*color*\> Highlighted background. **--hf** \<*color*\> Highlighted foreground. **--fbb** \<*color*\> Feedback background. **--fbf** \<*color*\> Feedback foreground. **--sb** \<*color*\> Selected background. **--sf** \<*color*\> Selected foreground. **--ab** \<*color*\> Alternating background color. **--af** \<*color*\> Alternating foreground color. **--scb** \<*color*\> Scrollbar background. **--scf** \<*color*\> Scrollbar foreground. ## KEYBOARD COMMANDS **bemenu** supports keyboard commands to move around the list and edit the filter. In the following examples, **C-x** means **\**, **M-x** means **\** and **S-x** means **\**: **\, S-\, C-p, M-j, M-l** Highlight the previous item. **\, \, C-n, M-h, M-k** Highlight the next item. **PageUp, M-v, M-u** Show the previous page of items, preserving the offset of the currently highlighted item, if possible. **PageDown, C-v, M-d** Show the next page of items, preserving the offset of the currently highlighted item, if possible. **S-M-\<, S-PageUp** Highlight the first item in the list. **S-M-\>, S-PageDown** Highlight the last item in the list. **S-\** Copy the highlighted item to the filter. **\, C-g** Terminate **bemenu** without printing items. **C-\, C-m** Print selected items and the currently highlighted one, and exit. Items are printed in the order they were selected, with the currently highlighted item printed last. **S-\, Insert** Print the filter text to standard output and exit. **C-b, C-l, \** Move cursor left. **C-f, \** Move cursor right. **C-a, Home** Move cursor to the start. **C-e, End** Move cursor to the end. **\ C-h** Remove character before the cursor. **\** Remove character at the cursor. **C-u, S-\** Remove all characters before the cursor. **C-k** Remove all characters after the cursor. **C-w** Clear the filter. **C-y, C-Y** Paste selection (**C-y** for "primary", **C-Y** for "clipboard"). **M-\[1-9\]** Print selected items and exit with a custom error code 10 (**M-1**) through 18 (**M-9**), see *EXIT STATUS*. **M-0** Print selected items and exit with the custom error code 19, see *EXIT* *STATUS*. ### Vim bindings **bemenu** uses vim-like modal entry if invoked with **--binding vim**. These bindings roughly emulate insert and normal vim modes. The initial mode is insert mode, unless **--vim-normal-mode** is specified. In insert mode, all keys function as described above except for the following: **\** Switch to normal mode. In normal mode, only the following keys have meaning: **q** Terminate **bemenu** without printing items. **i** Enter insert mode. **I** Enter insert mode after moving the cursor to the start. **a** Enter insert mode after moving the cursor right. **A** Enter insert mode after moving the cursor to the end. **cc** Enter insert mode after clearing the filter. **cw** Enter insert mode after removing all characters between the cursor and the start of the next word. **cb** Enter insert mode after removing all characters between the start of the word and the cursor. **c$** Enter insert mode after removing all characters after the cursor. **c0** Enter insert mode after removing all characters before the cursor. **n**, **j** Highlight the next item. **p**, **k** Highlight the previous item. **gg** Highlight the first item in the list. **G** Highlight the last item in the list. **H** Highlight the first visible item. **M** Highlight the middle-most visible item. **L** Highlight the last visible item. **v** Select or deselect the higlighted item. **F** Show the next page of items. **B** Show the previous page of items. **h** Move cursor left. **l** Move cursor right. **0** Move cursor to the start. **$** Move cursor to the end. **w** Move cursor forward to the start of a word. **b** Move cursor backward to the start of a word. **e** Move cursor forward to the end of a word. **x** Remove character at the cursor. **X** Remove character before the cursor. **dw** Remove all characters between the cursor and start of the next word. **db** Remove all characters between the start of the word and the cursor. **d$** Remove all characters after the cursor. **d0** Remove all characters before the cursor. **dd** Clear the filter. ## ENVIRONMENT | | | | --- | --- | | **BEMENU\_OPTS** | An alternative way to pass command line arguments to **bemenu**. | | **BEMENU\_BACKEND** | Force a backend to be used. If empty, one of the GUI backends (Wayland, X11) will be selected automatically. The accepted values are **curses**, **wayland** and **x11**. | | **BEMENU\_RENDERER** | Force a backend by loading its shared object from the set value. | | **BEMENU\_RENDERERS** | Override the backend search path to the set value. Defaults to */usr/lib/bemenu*. | | **BEMENU\_SCALE** | Override the rendering scale factor for the GUI backends. | ## EXIT STATUS **0** bemenu ran successfully. **1** The user exited without selecting, or bemenu encountered an error. **10-19** The user specified a custom exit code with **M-\[0-9\]**, see *KEYBOARD* *COMMANDS*. ## SEE ALSO [**dmenu**(1)](/dmenu/1.md), [**fork**(2)](/fork/2.md), [**ncurses**(3)](/ncurses/3.md), [**tty**(4)](/tty/4.md) *Pango Reference Manual*, https://developer.gnome.org/pango/1.46/, August 20, 2020, Fonts — pango\_font\_description\_from\_string(). ## AUTHORS **bemenu** is written and maintained by Jari Vetoniemi \<*mailroxas@gmail.com*\> with the help of various contributors.