rofi/doc/rofi-manpage.markdown

ROFI 1 rofi

NAME

rofi - A window switcher, run dialog and dmenu replacement

SYNOPSIS

rofi [ -width pct_scr ] [ -lines lines ] [ -columns columns ] [ -font pangofont ] [ -fg color ] [ -bg color ] [ -hlfg color ] [ -hlbg color ] [ -key combo ] [ -dkey comdo ] [ -rkey comdo ] [ -terminal terminal ] [ -location position ] [ -hmode ] [ -fixed-num-lines ] [ -padding padding ] [ -opacity opacity% ] [ -display display ] [ -bc color ] [ -bw width ] [ -dmenu [ -p prompt ] ] [ -ssh-client client ] [ -ssh-command command ] [ -now ] [ -rnow ] [ -snow ] [ -version ] [ -help] [ -dump-xresources ] [ -disable-history ] [ -levenshtein-sort ] [ -show mode ] [ -switcher mode1,mode2 ] [ -e message] [ -sep separator ] [ -eh element height ] [ -l selected line ]

DESCRIPTION

rofi is an X11 popup window switcher. A list is displayed center-screen showing open window titles, WM_CLASS, and desktop number. The user may filter the list by typing, navigate with Up/Down or Tab keys, and select a window with Return (Enter). Escape cancels.

License

MIT/X11

USAGE

rofi can be used in two ways, single-shot; executes once and directly exits when done or as daemon listening to specific key-combinations.

The default key combinations are:

• F12

  Show all windows on all desktops.

• mod1-F2

  Show run-dialog.

• mod1-F3

  Show run-dialog.

OPTIONS

-key

Change the key combination to display all windows (default: F12).

  rofi -key F12
  rofi -key control+shift+s
  rofi -key mod1+Tab

-rkey

Change the key combination to display the run dialog (default: mod1-F2).

  rofi -rkey F11
  rofi -rkey control+shift+d
  rofi -rkey mod1+grave (grave=backtick)

-skey

Change the key combination to display the ssh dialog (default: Alt-F3).

  rofi -skey F10
  rofi -skey control+shift+s
  rofi -skey mod1+grave (grave=backtick)

-now

Run rofi in all-windows mode once then exit. Does not bind any keys.

-rnow

Run rofi in run-dialog mode once then exit. Does not bind any keys.

-snow

Run rofi in ssh mode once then exit. Does not bind any keys.

-dmenu

Run rofi in dmenu mode. Allowing it to be used for user interaction in scripts.

Pressing shift-enter will open the selected entries and move to the next entry.

-show mode

Open rofi in a certain mode.

For example to show the run-dialog:

    rofi -show run

This function deprecates -rnow,-snow and -now

-switchers mode1,mode1

Give a comma separated list of modes to enable, in what order.

For example to only show the run and ssh dialog (in that order):

    rofi -switchers "run,ssh" -show run

Custom modes can be added using the internal 'script' mode. Each mode has two parameters:

    <name>:<script>

So to have a mode 'Workspaces' using the i3_switch_workspace.sh script type:

    rofi -switchers "window,run,ssh,Workspaces:i3_switch_workspaces.sh" -show Workspaces

Theming

-bg

Set the background text color (X11 named color or hex #rrggbb) for the menu (default: #222222).

  rofi -fg "#222222"

-bc

Set the border color (X11 named color or hex #rrggbb) for the menu (default: #000000).

  rofi -bc black

-bw

Set the border width in pixels (default: 1).

  rofi -bw 1

-fg

Set the foreground text color (X11 named color or hex #rrggbb) for the menu (default: #cccccc).

  rofi -fg "#cccccc"

-font

Pango font name for use by the menu (default: mono 14).

  rofi -font monospace\ 14

-hlbg

Set the background text color (X11 named color or hex #rrggbb) for the highlighted item in the menu (default: #005577).

  rofi -fg "#005577"

-hlfg

Set the foreground text color (X11 named color or hex #rrggbb) for the highlighted item in the menu (default: #ffffff).

  rofi -fg "#ffffff"

-opacity

Set the window opacity (0-100).

  rofi -opacity "75"

Layout

-lines

Maximum number of lines the menu may show before scrolling (default: 25).

  rofi -lines 25

-columns

The number of columns the menu may show before scrolling (default: 25).

  rofi -columns 2

-width [value]

Set the width of the menu as a percentage of the screen width (default: 60).

  rofi -width 60

If value is larger then 100, the size is set in pixels. e.g. to span a full hd monitor:

  rofi -width 1980

If the value is negative, it tries to estimates a character width. To show 30 characters on a row:

  rofi -width -30

Character width is a rough estimation, and might not be correct, but should work for most monospaced fonts.

-location

Specify where the window should be located. The numbers map to the following location on the monitor:

  1 2 3
  8 0 4
  7 6 5

-hmode

Switch to horizontal mode (ala dmenu). The number of elements is the number of lines times the number of columns.

-fixed-num-lines

Keep a fixed number of visible lines (See the -lines option.)

-padding

Define the inner margin of the window. Default is 5 pixels.

To make rofi look like dmenu:

  rofi -hmode -padding 0

-sidebar-mode

Go into side-bar mode, it will show list of modi at the bottom.
To show sidebar use:

    rofi -rnow -sidebar-mode -lines 0

Pattern setting

-terminal

Specify what terminal to start (default x-terminal-emulator)

  rofi -terminal xterm

-ssh-client client

Override the used ssh client. Default is ssh.

SSH settings

-ssh-set-title true|false

SSH dialogs tries to set 'ssh hostname' of the spawned terminal. Not all terminals support this. Default value is true.

This command has been deprecated for the ssh-command string

-ssh-command cmd

Set the command to execute when starting a ssh session.

Run settings

-run-command cmd

Set the command to execute when running an application. See PATTERN.

-run-shell-command cmd

Set the command to execute when running an application in a shell. See PATTERN.

History and Sorting

-disable-history

Disable history

-levenshtein-sort

When searching sort the result based on levenshtein distance.

Note that levenshtein sort is disabled in dmenu mode.

Dmenu specific

-sep separator

Separator for dmenu. For example to show list a to e with '|' as separator:

        echo "a|b|c|d|e" | rofi -sep '|' -dmenu

-p prompt

Specify the prompt to show in dmenu mode. E.g. select monkey a,b,c,d or e.

        echo "a|b|c|d|e" | rofi -sep '|' -dmenu -p "monkey:"

-eh element height

The height of a field in lines. e.g.
    
        echo -e "a\n3|b\n4|c\n5" | rofi -sep '|' -eh 2 -dmenu

-l selected line

Select a certain line.

Message dialog

-e message

Popup a message dialog (used internally for showing errors) with *message*.
Message can be multi-line.

Debug

-dump-xresources

Dump the current active configuration in xresources format to the command-line.

Pattern

To launch commands (e.g. when using the ssh dialog) the user can enter the used commandline, the following keys can be used that will be replaced at runtime:

• {host}: The host to connect to.
• {terminal}: The configured terminal (See -terminal-emulator)
• {ssh-client}: The configured ssh client (See -ssh-client)
• {cmd}: The command to execute.

Dmenu replacemnt

If argv[0] (calling command) is dmenu, rofi will start in dmenu mode. This way it can be used as a drop-in replacement for dmenu. just copy or symlink rofi to dmenu in $PATH.

ln -s /usr/bin/dmenu /usr/bin/rofi

Signals

HUP

If in daemon mode, reload the configuration from Xresources. (arguments still override).

Keybindings

Rofi supports the following keybindings:

• Ctrl-v, Insert: Paste clipboard
• Ctrl-Shift-v, Shift-Insert: Paste primary selection
• Ctrl-u: Clear the line
• Ctrl-a: Beginning of line
• Ctrl-e: End of line
• Ctrl-f, Right: Forward one character
• Ctrl-b, Left: Back one character
• Ctrl-d, Delete: Delete character
• Ctrl-h, Backspace: Backspace (delete previous character)
• Ctrl-j,Ctrl-m,Enter: Accept entry
• Ctrl-n,Down: Select next entry
• Ctrl-p,Up: Select previous entry
• Page Up: Go to the previous page
• Page Down: Go to the next page
• Ctrl-Page Up: Go to the previous column
• Ctrl-Page Down: Go to the next column
• Ctrl-Enter: Use entered text as command (in ssh/run dialog)
• ?: Switch to the next modi. The list can be customized with the -switchers argument.
• ctrl-/: Switch to the previous modi. The list can be customized with the -switchers argument.
• Ctrl-space: Set selected item as input text.
• Shift-Del: Delete entry from history.

FAQ

Text in window switcher is not nicely lined out

Try using a mono-space font.

Rofi is completely black.

Check quotes used on the commandline: e.g. used “ instead of ".

WEBSITE

rofi website can be found at here

rofi bugtracker can be found here

AUTHOR

Qball Cow qball@gmpclient.org

Original code based on work by: Sean Pringle sean.pringle@gmail.com