RATPOISON(1)

๐Ÿ“ฆ
version 1.4.9 ยท 4 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

okay so bestie, you just opened ratpoison(1) from the General Commands Manual and I'm literally so hyped to walk you through it. it's giving "window manager that doesn't need a mouse", and honestly? iconic. no cap. ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿ’–

โœจ NAME โœจ

ratpoison โ€” window manager without mouse dependency

๐ŸŒธ SYNOPSIS ๐ŸŒธ

ratpoison [-hv]
ratpoison [-d dpy] [-s num] [-f file]
ratpoison [-d dpy] [-s num] [-i] -c command [-c command ...]

๐Ÿ’… DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿ’…

okay so ratpoison is a Window Manager without fat library dependencies, fancy graphics or rat dependence. yes, literally. it's not like other WMs. ๐Ÿซถ

the screen can be split into non-overlapping frames. all windows are kept maximized inside their frames. periodt. ๐Ÿ’…

all interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize key clobbering. so your keys stay yours, bestie. โœจ

the options are as follows:

  • -c, --command โ€” Send ratpoison a command. there must be a ratpoison instance running as window manager for the given display/screen for this to work. do not forget to quote the command if it contains spaces. for example:
ratpoison -c "echo hello world"
  • -d, --display display โ€” Set the X display to use or send commands to.
  • -f, --file filename โ€” Specify an alternate configuration file. If this is not given, ratpoison will try $HOME/.ratpoisonrc and if that does not exist /etc/ratpoisonrc and execute each command when starting up.
  • -h, --help โ€” Show summary of options.
  • -i, --interactive โ€” Execute commands given with -c or --command in interactive mode. That means it will behave exactly as if called with C-t : like prompting for missing arguments and things like that.
  • -s, --screen number โ€” Only use the specified screen.
  • -v, --version โ€” Show version of program.

๐ŸŽ€ KEY BINDINGS ๐ŸŽ€

To avoid conflicts with other programs, all default ratpoison key bindings start with an escape key, per default C-t (read Control-t). Some important default key bindings:

  • C-t ? โ€” Show key bindings
  • C-t c โ€” Start an X terminal
  • C-t n โ€” Switch to next window
  • C-t p โ€” Switch to previous window
  • C-t 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 โ€” Switch to window number 1 | 2 | ...
  • C-t k โ€” Close the current window
  • C-t K โ€” XKill the current application
  • C-t s | S โ€” Split the current frame into two vertical | horizontal ones
  • C-t Tab | Left | Up | Right | Down โ€” Switch to the next | left | top | right | bottom frame.
  • C-t Q โ€” Make the current frame the only one
  • C-t : โ€” Execute a ratpoison command

Further default key bindings can be found in parentheses after the commands in the next section.

๐Ÿ‘‘ COMMANDS AND DEFAULT ALIASES ๐Ÿ‘‘

  • abort (C-t C-g) โ€” Do nothing and that successfully. (Useful if you pressed C-t in error).
  • addhook event command โ€” Add a hook: run command whenever event is called. Possible events are:
    • deletewindow โ€” Run after a window is withdrawn.
    • newwindow โ€” Run after a new window is mapped.
    • key โ€” Run whenever a top level key is pressed (by default C-t).
    • quit โ€” Run before exiting ratpoison.
    • restart โ€” Run before restarting ratpoison.
    • switchframe โ€” Run after a frame actually switched, but before the window in it is focused.
    • switchgroup โ€” Run after selecting a new group.
    • switchscreen โ€” Run when the user switches to a different screen.
    • switchwin โ€” Run after a new window is selected. (With dedication, it may already be inactive again, if it was put into another frame)
  • alias alias command โ€” Add alias as new way to call command.
  • bind key command โ€” alias for definekey root key command
  • banish (C-t b) โ€” Banish the rat cursor to the lower right corner of the screen.
  • banishrel โ€” Banish the rat cursor to the lower right corner of the current window. If there isn't a window in the current frame, it banishes the rat cursor to the lower right corner of the frame.
  • chdir [directory] โ€” If the optional argument is given, change the current directory of ratpoison to directory. If nothing is given, change it to the value of the environment variable "HOME".
  • clrunmanaged โ€” Clears the unmanaged window list.
  • cnext โ€” Like next but switch to the next window with another resource class than the current one. (That means the next window belonging to another type of application than the current one.)
  • cprev โ€” Like prev but switch to the previous window with another resource class than the current one. (That means the previous window belonging to another type of application than the current one.)
  • colon ratpoison-command (C-t :) โ€” Execute ratpoison-command interactively. (i.e. ask for possible missing arguments.)
  • cother โ€” Like other but switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed and has another resource class but is not currently visible.
  • curframe (C-t F) โ€” Show a bar marking the current frame.
  • definekey keymap key command โ€” Add a new key binding in keymap for key to execute command. Default keymaps are top normally only containing C-t, which reads a key from root, containing all the normal commands.

Note that you have to describe ":" by "colon", "!" by "exclam" and so on. If you cannot guess a name of a key, try either C-t key and look at the error message, or try :describekey root and pressing the key.

  • dedicate [0 | 1] โ€” Consider the current frame dedicated/chaste (1) or promiscuous (0).

A dedicated frame will not accept new windows. When new windows are to be focused, they will be opened in a non-dedicated frame instead.

If no argument is given, toggle the current dedicateness. By default no windows are dedicated.

  • delete (C-t k) โ€” Close the current window.
  • delkmap keymap โ€” Deletes the keymap named keymap, that was generated with newkmap. The keymaps top (or whatever was specified by set topkmap) and root cannot be deleted.
  • describekey keymap โ€” Grab the next key. Similar to readkey, describekey shows only the command in keymap, that would be executed by readkey.
  • echo text โ€” Show text as ratpoison message.
  • escape key โ€” Update the default escape key to key.

Strictly speaking it updates the readkey root command in the keymap top to key, the other binding in root to key, and meta binding in root to key without modifiers or C-key if key has no modifiers. (If set topkmap was called with an argument other than top that will be used instead of top.)

  • exchangedown (C-t C-Down) โ€” Exchange the window in the current frame with the window in the frame below the current frame.
  • exchangeleft (C-t C-Left) โ€” Exchange the window in the current frame with the window in the frame left of the current frame.
  • exchangeright (C-t C-Right) โ€” Exchange the window in the current frame with the window in the frame right of the current frame.
  • exchangeup (C-t C-Up) โ€” Exchange the window in the current frame with the window in the frame above the current frame.
  • exec shell-command (C-t !) โ€” Spawn a shell executing shell-command.
  • execa shell-command โ€” Spawn a shell executing shell-command, without remembering the current frame, so that _NET_WM_PID declaring programs will be placed into the frame active when they open a window instead of the frame active when ratpoison gets this command.
  • execf frame shell-command โ€” Spawn a shell executing shell-command, showing _NET_WM_PID supporting programs in the given frame instead of the frame selected when this program is run.
  • fdump [screenno] โ€” Output the defining data for all frames of the current screen, or for screen number screenno if this is specified.
  • focus (C-t Tab) โ€” Focus the next frame.
  • focuslast โ€” Switch to the last selected focus.
  • focusleft (C-t Left) โ€” Switch to the frame to the left of the current one.
  • focusdown (C-t Down) โ€” Switch to the frame beneath the current one.
  • focusright (C-t Right) โ€” Switch to the frame to the right of the current one.
  • focusprev โ€” Focus the previous frame.
  • focusup (C-t Up) โ€” Switch to the frame above the current one.
  • frestore frames โ€” Replace the current frames with the ones specified in frames in the format as generated by fdump.
  • fselect [frameno] (C-t f) โ€” If an argument is supplied, switch to a frame given by number frameno.

If no argument is given, show a frame selector in each frame and wait for a key to be pressed. If the key matches an existing frame selector, this frame gets focused.

Frame selectors are by default the numbers starting with zero, but they can be changed by setting framesels.

  • gdelete [group] โ€” If the optional argument group is supplied, delete group. Otherwise delete the current group. If the last group is deleted, a new group with name default is created. The group has to be empty, otherwise it cannot be deleted.
  • getenv variable โ€” Output the value of the environment variable variable.
  • getsel โ€” Paste the current X Selection into the current window.
  • gmerge group โ€” Move all windows from group group into the current group.
  • gmove group โ€” Move the current window into group group.
  • gnew group โ€” Create a new group with name group and select it. Most window commands only see (and thus select, consider next, previous or last) windows within the group active when they are issued.
  • gnewbg group โ€” Create a new group named group, but do not select it.
  • gnext โ€” Select the next group. Most window commands only see windows in the effective group.
  • gnumber [old new] โ€” Give the number new to the group with the number old or the current group.
  • gother โ€” Select the last accessed group. Most window commands only see windows in the effective group.
  • gprev โ€” Select the prior group. Most window commands only see windows in the effective group.
  • gravity [nw | w | sw | n | c | s | ne | e | se] โ€” Change how in its frame the current window is aligned.
  • grename โ€” Rename current group.
  • groups โ€” okay so this one spits out every group and its number. like a roster but for your window groups ๐Ÿ’–
  • gselect group โ€” picks the group named group. boom, you're there โœจ
  • help [keymap] โ€” if you pass the optional keymap, it lists every keybinding in that keymap. no keymap? then it lists all keybindings in keymap root. iykyk ๐ŸŽ€
  • hsplit [l/p | [-]pixels] โ€” split current frame into a left frame and a right frame. no parameter? split in halves. if two numbers separated by a slash (/) are given, the left one is l times the pth part and the right one is (p - l) times the pth part of prior width. otherwise the right half is pixels wide, or the left one is pixels wide, depending on whether there's a - in front of the number or not. bound to C-t S. frame math, but make it fashion ๐Ÿ’…
  • inext โ€” like next, but switch to the next window with the same resource class as the current one. aka next window from the same app ๐Ÿฆ‹
  • info โ€” output the current width, height, window number and window name of the current window. (what "name" means is chosen by set winname.) bound to C-t i. receipts for your window ๐Ÿ“‹
  • iprev โ€” like prev, but switch to the previous window with the same resource class as the current one. same app, other direction ๐ŸŒ€
  • iother โ€” like other, but switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed and has the same resource class but is not currently visible. the hidden sibling window ๐Ÿ™ˆ
  • kill โ€” close the X-connection of the X-client responsible for the current window. bound to C-t K. yes it's giving murder, but for X clients ๐Ÿ’€
  • lastmsg โ€” reshow the last message. bound to C-t m. the group chat scrollback but for ratpoison ๐Ÿ”
  • license โ€” show ratpoison's license. bound to C-t V. legal queen behavior ๐Ÿ‘‘
  • link key [keymap] โ€” do what key is bound to in the keymap keymap if supplied. otherwise what key is bound to in keymap root. shortcut to a shortcut ๐Ÿ”—
  • listhook event โ€” list all commands specified with addhook to be executed when even event occurs. hook receipts ๐Ÿช
  • meta [key] โ€” send the escape key (that which normally is C-t) to the current window. if key is specified, this is sent instead. note: some applications by default ignore the synthetic key that is sent using this command as it is considered a security hole. xterm is one such application. bound to C-t t. security warning bestie โš ๏ธ
  • msgwait [seconds] โ€” set the duration the message window is shown. if seconds is zero, wait infinitely. deprecated, please set the msgwait variable instead. old way, do the variable instead ๐Ÿซถ
  • newkmap keymap โ€” generate a new keymap named keymap. this keymap can be used to add new key-command mappings to it with definekey and can be called with readkey. fresh keymap just dropped โœจ
  • newwm new-window-manager โ€” quit ratpoison and execute new-window-manager instead. passing the aux ๐ŸŽง
  • next โ€” switch to the next window in the current group. bound to C-t Return, C-t n, and C-t space. next next next โžก๏ธ
  • nextscreen โ€” switch to the next screen. (if you have multiple physical ones.) bound to C-t N. multi-monitor girlies rise ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ
  • number new [old] โ€” give the number new to the window with the number old, or to the current window. renumbering era ๐Ÿ”ข
  • only โ€” remove all frames on the current screen except the current frame and maximize this one to the size of the whole screen. bound to C-t Q. main character frame energy ๐Ÿ‘‘
  • other โ€” switch to the window of the current group that was last accessed but is not currently visible. bound to C-t C-t. the one you forgot was open ๐Ÿซฃ
  • prev โ€” switch to the previous window in the current group. bound to C-t p. back it up โฌ…๏ธ
  • prevscreen โ€” switch to the previous screen. (if you have multiple physical ones.) bound to C-t P. other monitor said hi ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ
  • prompt [prompt] โ€” ratpoison will ask the user for input, showing prompt (or a single colon, if no argument is given) and output the input the user has made. note: this command probably does not make much sense in interactive mode. asking for input, but make it awkward ๐Ÿ˜ญ
  • putsel x-selection โ€” replace the X selection with the text x-selection. it can be inserted into the current window with getsel. clipboard but make it ratpoison ๐Ÿ“‹
  • quit โ€” quit ratpoison. bye bestie ๐Ÿ‘‹
  • ratinfo โ€” display the x y coordinates of the rat cursor relative to the screen. where's the mouse? screen edition ๐Ÿ
  • ratrelinfo โ€” display the x y coordinates of the rat cursor relative to the current window or current frame if no window is focused. where's the mouse? window/frame edition ๐Ÿ€
  • ratwarp x y โ€” move the rat cursor to the position (x, y). teleport the mouse โœจ
  • ratrelwarp deltax deltay โ€” move the rat cursor to (deltax, deltay), relative to the current position. mouse movement, but relative ๐ŸŒ€
  • ratclick [button] โ€” simulate a rat click with button (button 1=left button if none given). click click ๐Ÿ–ฑ๏ธ
  • rathold {up | down} [button] โ€” simulate pressing|releasing rat button button (1=left button if none given). hold or release, your call ๐Ÿ–ฑ๏ธ
  • readkey keymap โ€” grab the next key pressed, and execute the command associated to this key in keymap. to show it is waiting for a key, ratpoison will change the rat cursor to a square if waitcursor is set. this command is perhaps best described with its usage in the default configuration: by pressing C-t, which is the only key in the keymap top, the command "readkey root" is executed. the next key then executes the command in keymap root belonging to this command. keyboard inception โŒจ๏ธ
  • redisplay โ€” extend the current window to the whole size of its current frame and redisplay it. (useful to redisplay normal windows or bring transient windows to the full size of the frame as only normal windows are maximized by ratpoison.) bound to C-t l. refresh her ๐Ÿ’ซ
  • redo โ€” revert the last undo of frame changes. bound to C-t U. undo the undo ๐Ÿ”
  • remhook event command โ€” remove command from the list of commands to be called when event event is hit. (the command has to be specified, as an event can have multiple commands attached to it.) use "listhook hook" to get a list of all attached commands. hook removal service ๐Ÿช
  • remove โ€” remove the current frame and extend some frames around to fill the remaining gap. bound to C-t R. delete frame, patch the hole ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ
  • removedown โ€” kill frames directly below the current frame, extending the current frame as much as possible. bound to C-t M-Down. downward frame destruction โฌ‡๏ธ
  • removeleft โ€” kill frames directly left of the current frame, extending the current frame as much as possible. bound to C-t M-Left. leftward frame destruction โฌ…๏ธ
  • removeup โ€” kill frames directly above the current frame, extending the current frame as much as possible. bound to C-t M-Up. upward frame destruction โฌ†๏ธ
  • removeright โ€” kill frames directly right of the current frame, extending the current frame as much as possible. bound to C-t M-Right. rightward frame destruction โžก๏ธ
  • resize [deltax deltay] โ€” if deltax and deltay are supplied, resize the current frame by that (i.e. move the bottom right corner by the given offsets and then move this frame and resize adjacent frames to make the frames fill the whole screen again). if in interactive mode no arguments are supplied, resize the current frame interactively: bound to C-t r.
    • Return โ€” finish resizing
    • C-g, Escape โ€” abort resizing
    • C-n, Down, j โ€” grow vertically
    • C-p, Up, k โ€” shrink vertically
    • C-f, Right, l โ€” grow horizontally
    • C-b, Up, h โ€” shrink horizontally
    • s โ€” shrink to size of current window

while resizing interactively, changes are in multiples of the amount of pixels given by set resizeunit (by default 10). pixel-by-pixel glow up ๐Ÿ’…

  • restart โ€” restart ratpoison. reboot her ๐Ÿ”„
  • rudeness [rudeness] โ€” deprecated, please use the rudeness variable instead. old command, new variable ๐Ÿซถ
  • sdump โ€” output the list of all screens. the screens are separated by commas. each screen is shown as 6 values: its number, its x-coordinate, its y-coordinate, its width, its height and if it is currently selected (1=true, 0=false). screen inventory, comma-separated ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ
  • select {- | name | number} โ€” if a number is given, switch to the window with number number. if a name is given, switch to the window in the current group with name name. blank the current frame if - is given. bound to C-t '. jump to window by number, name, or blank ๐ŸŽฏ
  • set [variable [value]] โ€” if no argument is given, output all ratpoison variables and their values. if one argument is given, output the value of ratpoison variable variable. otherwise set variable to value. what values are valid depends on the variable. see the section โ€œVARIABLESโ€ later in this document for details. the settings menu but text โš™๏ธ
  • setenv variable value โ€” set the environment variable variable to value. (environment variables will be passed to all programs started from ratpoison.) env vars for your ratpoison children ๐ŸŒฑ
  • sfdump โ€” output all frames similar to fdump, but not limited to one screen, but all screens at once and with the screen number after each frame. frame dump, all screens ๐Ÿ—‚๏ธ
  • sfrestore frames โ€” replace the current frames with the ones specified in frames in the format as generated by sfdump. restore that frame layout โ™ป๏ธ
  • shrink โ€” shrink the current frame to the size of the current window with in. smaller frame, same window energy ๐Ÿค
  • split [split] โ€” alias for vsplit. bound to C-t s. split but vertical, basically โœ‚๏ธ
  • source file โ€” read file and execute each line as ratpoison command. run the whole file, line by line ๐Ÿ“œ
  • sselect screennumber โ€” switch to the screen screennumber. (if you have multiple physical ones.) pick a screen, any screen ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ
  • startup_message {on | off} โ€” select whether ratpoison will show a startup message or not. deprecated, please use the startupmessage variable instead. old toggle, use variable ๐Ÿซถ
  • swap dest-frame [src-frame] โ€” exchange the window in src-frame (or the current frame if there is no second argument) with the window dest-frame (or ask interactively which frame to swap with if there is no argument). bound to C-t x. frame swap, no takebacks ๐Ÿ”„
  • time โ€” output current data and time. bound to C-t a. clock check โฐ
  • title newname โ€” overwrite the title of the current window with newname. all following ratpoison commands will only know the window under the new name. bound to C-t A. rename that window ๐Ÿท๏ธ
  • tmpwm tmpwm โ€” temporarily give control over to the other window manager tmpwm, reclaiming control when that WM terminates. borrow another WM, then take it back ๐ŸŽญ
  • unalias alias โ€” remove the alias alias. alias deletion ๐Ÿ—‘๏ธ
  • unbind key โ€” alias for undefinekey root key. unbind but through root ๐Ÿ”“
  • undefinekey keymap key โ€” remove the binding for key from keymap. key binding, deleted โŒจ๏ธ
  • undo โ€” un-do the last change to the frameset. (like splitting, resizing, deleting, ...) the amount of steps that can be undone is specified by the variable maxundos. bound to C-t _, C-t u. undo era โ†ฉ๏ธ
  • unmanage [name] โ€” adds name to the list of unmanaged windows ๐Ÿซถ so like, windows with this name get to pick their own position instead of being managed. Free spirits only.

In non-interactive mode, calling it with no arguments prints the list.

Wanna wipe the list clean again? Call clrunmanaged. โœจ

  • unsetenv variable โ€” yeets variable out of the list of environment variables ๐Ÿšฎ
  • verbexec cmdline โ€” spawns a shell running cmdline, but like... after showing a message with the command first. So you know what you did. ๐Ÿ’…
  • version (C-t v) โ€” outputs version and compile time info ๐Ÿ‘‘
  • vsplit [l/p | pixels-from-top | -pixels-from-bottom] (C-t s) โ€” splits the current frame into an upper frame and a lower frame ๐ŸชŸ๐ŸชŸ If you give no parameter, it splits in halves. If you give two numbers separated by a slash (/), the upper one is l times the pth part and the lower one is (p - l) times the pth part of the prior height. Otherwise, the lower one is pixels from bottom wide or the upper one is pixels from top high โ€” depends on whether there's a - in front of the number or not. Sneaky little minus sign, iykyk.
  • warp {on | off} โ€” picks whether focusing a window moves the rat cursor to wherever it was last time this window was focused, or not ๐Ÿ
This command is deprecated, bestie ๐Ÿ˜ญ please set the warp variable instead.
  • windows [format] (C-t w) โ€” in interactive mode, shows the list of all windows in the current group for the duration set by the variable msgwait. If msgwait was zero, it toggles between showing indefinitely and not showing. ๐Ÿ™ˆ

The messages get shown in columns or rows depending on the value of winliststyle in the format set by set winfmt. The following substitutions happen in format:

  • %a โ€” application name (resource name)
  • %c โ€” resource class
  • %f โ€” frame number
  • %g โ€” gravity of the window
  • %h โ€” height of the window
  • %H โ€” unit to resize the window vertically (height_inc)
  • %i โ€” X Window ID
  • %p โ€” process ID
  • %l โ€” last access number
  • %M โ€” string Maxsize, if it specifies a maximum size
  • %n โ€” window number
  • %s โ€” window status (* is active window, + would be chosen by other, - otherwise)
  • %S โ€” screen number
  • %t โ€” window name (see set winname),
  • %T โ€” the string Transient, if it is a transient window
  • %w โ€” width of the window
  • %W โ€” unit to resize the window horizontally (width_inc)
  • %x โ€” xine screen number
  • %% โ€” litteral %

Also, there can be a positive decimal integer number between the percent sign and the format string to specify the length this value should be truncated to if it's longer. (Example: %20t) ๐Ÿ”ฅ

In non-interactive mode, it outputs the list of windows in the current group line by line. The format string can be overwritten by the optional parameter format.


โœจ VARIABLES โœจ

ratpoison variables can be shown and set with set ๐Ÿ’– The following variables are supported:

  • resizeunit pixels โ€” sets the amount of pixels interactive resize adds/subtracts in each step.

Default is 5.

  • maxundos number โ€” the maximal amount of steps ratpoison can undo with the undo command.

Default is 20.

  • wingravity {nw | w | sw | n | c | s | ne | e | se} โ€” sets the default gravity new normal windows get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is nw.

  • maxsizegravity {nw | w | sw | n | c | s | ne | e | se} โ€” sets the default gravity new self-maximized windows get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is c.

  • transgravity {nw | w | sw | n | c | s | ne | e | se} โ€” sets the default gravity new transient windows get. Possible values are the same as in the gravity command, which changes the gravity of an existing window: cardinal points or numbers 1 to 9.

Default is c.

  • bargravity {nw | w | sw | n | c | s | ne | e | se} โ€” selects the location where message and prompt bars appear.

Default is ne.

  • font font โ€” makes ratpoison use font.
  • padding left top right bottom โ€” sets how much space at the borders of the screen will not be used.

Default is 0 0 0 0.

  • border pixels โ€” selects how thick the frame around windows is.

Default is 1.

  • barborder pixels โ€” selects how thick the frame around ratpoison's prompt or message windows is.

Default is 1.

  • inputwidth pixels โ€” determines the width of the input window.

Default is 200.

  • barinpadding {0 | 1} โ€” if there's padding, determines whether the bar appears at the edge of the screen (1) or at the edge of the window area (0).

Default is 0.

  • topkmap kmap โ€” makes kmap the top keymap ratpoison grabs directly.

The default value is top.

  • waitcursor {0 | 1} โ€” determines whether to change the rat cursor when waiting for a key (1) or not (0). See readkey and describekey.

Default is 1.

  • winfmt format โ€” chooses the default format for the windows command.

Default is %n%s%t.

  • winname {title | name | class} โ€” chooses what's considered the "name" of the window by ratpoison:
    • title โ€” the title of the window.
    • name โ€” the resource name of the window.
    • class โ€” the resource class i.e. the name of the application.

Default is title.

  • fgcolor color โ€” the foreground color of the windows ratpoison creates.

Default is black.

  • bgcolor color โ€” the background color of the windows ratpoison creates.

Default is white.

  • fwcolor color โ€” the border color of the focused window.

Default is black.

  • bwcolor color โ€” the border color of unfocused windows.

Default is black.

  • barpadding x y โ€” sets horizontal padding of ratpoison windows to x and vertical padding to y.

Default is 4 0.

  • winliststyle {row | column} โ€” determines whether windows are shown in rows or in columns.

Default is column.

  • framesels selectors โ€” overrides the frame selectors fselect uses. The first character is the selector for the first frame, the second character is the selector for the second frame and so on.

Using this variable, one can directly access more than 10 frames. ๐Ÿคฏ

Default is an empty string, which is equivalent to "0123456789".

  • historysize number โ€” specifies the maximum number of values kept in input history.

Default is 20.

  • historycompaction {0 | 1} โ€” decides if new input lines added to history delete older equal lines from history.

Default is 1 (on).

  • historyexpansion {0 | 1} โ€” decides if history expansion using ! is available. (Can only be activated when compiled with readline's libhistory.)
  • msgwait seconds โ€” the duration the message window is shown. If seconds is zero, wait infinitely. โณ
  • framemsgwait seconds โ€” the duration the Current frame indicator is shown. If seconds is zero, wait until the next interactive command. If seconds is -1, don't show any message.
  • startupmessage 0 | 1 โ€” decides whether to show a greeting message at startup. ๐Ÿ‘‹
  • warp 0 | 1 โ€” decides if focusing a window moves the rat cursor to the place it had been last time this window was focused, or not.

Default is 0 (off).

  • rudeness number โ€” shows or sets what kind of windows are allowed to jostle into the foreground. ๐Ÿ˜ค

number is a bitwise OR of the following values:

  • 1 โ€” Transient windows may raise.
  • 2 โ€” Normal windows may raise.
  • 4 โ€” New transient windows end up in the foreground.
  • 8 โ€” New normal windows end up in the foreground.

Default is all allowed i.e. 15.


๐Ÿ“ FILES ๐Ÿ“

  • ~/.ratpoisonrc โ€” Configuration file read at startup time, if present.
  • /etc/ratpoisonrc โ€” Fallback configuration file, if ~/.ratpoisonrc is not found.

๐Ÿšช EXIT STATUS ๐Ÿšช

The ratpoison utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. Simple as that bestie ๐Ÿ’…


๐Ÿ‘‘ AUTHORS ๐Ÿ‘‘

Upstream author is Shawn Betts <sabetts@gmail.com>. ๐Ÿซถ

See the /usr/share/doc/ratpoison/AUTHORS file for other contributors.

This manual page was written by Bernhard R. Link <brlink@debian.org>. The conversion to the mdoc(7) language (http://mdocml.bsd.lv) was done by Jeremie Courreges-Anglas <jca@wxcvbn.org>.


๐Ÿ’€ BUGS ๐Ÿ’€

Please report any bug you find to the ratpoison mailing-list, โŸจratpoison-devel@nongnu.orgโŸฉ. Not me, not your group chat โ€” the mailing list. Fr fr. ๐Ÿ™ˆ


and that's the whole page, bestie ๐ŸŽ€โœจ this one's the Debian build, dated 2017-03-09, living its best life as RATPOISON(1) ๐Ÿ’– go forth and tile your windows, you absolute icon ๐Ÿ‘‘

๐Ÿ“ฆ where this page comes from