---
name: "bluetile"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bluetile"
version: "0.6-1"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bluetile"
---

# bluetile(1)

full-featured tiling for the GNOME desktop environment

## NAME

bluetile - full-featured tiling for the GNOME desktop environment

## SYNOPSIS

bluetile \[--help\] \[--version\] \[--restart\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Bluetile** is a tiling window manager designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment. It provides both a traditional, stacking layout mode as well as tiling layouts where windows are arranged to use the entire screen without overlapping. **Bluetile** tries to make the tiling paradigm easily accessible to users coming from traditional window managers by drawing on known conventions and providing both mouse and keyboard access for all features.

- •

  Designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment

- •

  Hybrid approach: Stacking window layout & tiling layouts available

- •

  All features accessible from mouse, as well as keyboard

- •

  Maximizing & minimizing windows in all layouts

- •

  Good multihead support

- •

  Proper handling of fullscreen applications

## OVERVIEW

To quickly get up and running just start **Bluetile** from your current window manager/desktop environment (preferably GNOME). **Bluetile** will replace the currently running window manager (if the window manager supports this) and start up.

One way to set up **Bluetile** as your default window manager under GNOME is to make sure that the environment variable WINDOW\_MANAGER contains the path to the **Bluetile** binary before GNOME starts. This can be achieved by putting something like the following line into ~/.gnomerc:

```
  export WINDOW_MANAGER=bluetile
```

If you use a packaged version of **Bluetile**, your distribution might already provide you with a preconfigured xsession.

## OPTIONS

**--help**    print help message

**--version** print the version number

**--restart** request a running **Bluetile** process to restart

## KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

This is a list of most keyboard shortcuts for **Bluetile**:

```
  Win+Return      Launch terminal
  Win+p           Launch GNOME "Run application" dialog
  Win+a           Switch to stacking window layout
  Win+s           Switch to tiled horizontal layout
  Win+d           Switch to tiled vertical layout
  Win+f           Switch to fullscreen layout
  Win+j           Move focus to the next window
  Win+k           Move focus to the previous window
  Win+Space       Move focus to the master window
  Win+Shift+j     Swap the focused window with the next window
  Win+Shift+k     Swap the focused window with the previous window
  Win+Shift+Space Swap the focused window with the master window
  Win+h           Shrink the master area
  Win+l           Expand the master area
  Win+u           Shrink a slave area
  Win+i           Expand a slave area
  Win+,           Increment the number of windows in the master area
  Win+.           Decrement the number of windows in the master area
  Win+Shift+c     Close the focused window
  Win+z           Maximize/zoom focused window
  Win+m           Minimize focused window
  Win+Shift+m     Restore next minimized window
  Win+o           Show window menu for focused window
  Win+t           Push dialog window back into tiling
  Win+b           Toggle to previously displayed workspace
  Win+1 .. Win+9, Win+0
    Switch to workspace N
  Win+Shift+1 .. Win+Shift+9, Win+Shift+0
    Move client to workspace N
  Win+w, Win+e, Win+r
    Switch to physical/Xinerama screens 1, 2 or 3
  Win+Shift+w, Win+Shift+e, Win+Shift+r
    Move client to physical/Xinerama screen 1, 2 or 3
  Win+F5          Refresh layout
  Win+Shift+q     Quit Bluetile
```

## CONFIGURATION

Edit the file ~/.bluetilerc to configure **Bluetile**.

## AUTHOR

Jan Vornberger \<jan.vornberger@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de\>