I3-CONFIG-WIZARD(1)

📦
version 4.25.1 · 10 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

i3-config-wizard — bestie, it literally makes you a keysym based config that's tailored to your keyboard layout 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

i3-config-wizard [-s socket] [-m modifier] [-v] [-h]

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -s, --socket socket — overrides the path to the i3 IPC socket, like, "no thank you, I'll take a different socket actually" ✨
  • -m, --modifier modifier — generates the config file headlessly (no window, no vibes, just output). Takes either win or alt 🫶
  • -v, --version — shows the version number and dips immediately 💀
  • -h, --help — shows a short help message and then exits, iconic behaviour 👑

🦋 FILES 🦋

/etc/i3/config.keycodes

This is the default config, but in keycodes. Every single bindcode line in here gets glow-up-transformed into a bindsym, and whatever modifier you picked gets slotted in 🌸

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

Okay so here's the tea: i3-config-wizard gets launched by i3 straight out of its default config — unless ~/.i3/config already exists, in which case you're already set up and it minds its business.

What the wizard does is make you a keysym based i3 config file in ~/.i3/config, and it builds it from /etc/i3/config.keycodes 💖

Now why do we even want keysyms? Because a keysym based config is genuinely easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to modify — it's giving main character documentation energy. But (and this is the big but) if we shipped a keysym based default config, the key positions would be a whole mess across different keyboard layouts. Think about the homerow you use for movement — that homerow does not sit in the same place on every layout, and suddenly your muscle memory is in shambles 😭

So instead: we ship a keycode based default config, and let the wizard do its little transformation according to your current keyboard layout. Slay, honestly 💅

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

i3(1)

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Michael Stapelberg and contributors 🫶

That's the whole page, bestie — no cap. This was i3 4.25.1, dated 01/01/1980, from the i3 Manual. Go forth and get your config right the first time ✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from