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Olwm is a window manager for the X Window System that implements parts of the OPEN LOOK graphical user interface. It is the standard window manager for Sun’s OpenWindows product, but it will work properly with any X11 system. The only requirements for running olwm are that the server have the OPEN LOOK glyph and cursor fonts available.
Most command-line options have counterparts in the resource database. A command-line option will override any setting from the resource database.
sleep 15 & pid=$! olwm -syncpid $pid & wait $pid
The following options are strictly for debugging. They are not recommended for general use. Don’t use them unless you know what you are doing.
The locale is the set of language and cultural conventions used by a program. The locale controls the language-dependent part of olwm’s behavior. The OPEN LOOK international extensions have defined several locale categories as follows:
The Basic Locale setting determines the character set used by olwm. The other locale categories can differ from the basic setting, but they cannot require a different character set from the Basic Locale. The following restrictions thus apply:
The following methods are available to inform olwm of the locale settings, listed in order of priority:
olwm has another focus mode called "focus-follows-mouse." In this mode, whatever window the mouse is pointing to will receive the input focus. To switch the input focus from one window to another, you simply move the pointer to the other window; you don’t have to click at all. Note, however, that to transfer the focus amongst subwindows of a single top-level window, you must click in the subwindow, or you must use focus transfer function keys (if available from the application).
The input focus mode can be controlled with command-line options or by entries in the resource database. Neither focus mode has inherent advantages. Which one you choose is a matter of personal preference.
There is an alternate style of button handling for two-button mice: SELECT is button 1, ADJUST is button 2, and MENU is performed by holding down buttons 1 and 2 simultaneously. This technique is referred to as mouse button chording. Turns on the mouse chording mechanism. This allows two-button mice to have a different button binding than the OPEN LOOK defaults for mice with fewer than three buttons. When OpenWindows.MouseChordMenu is set to True, mouse button 1 is SELECT , mouse button 2 is ADJUST , and pressing the SELECT and the ADJUST buttons at the same time will act as the MENU button. For the default behavior when this resource is set to False, see the section "MOUSE BUTTONS" in the olwm(1) manual page.
Clicking SELECT selects the window, raises it above other windows, and deselects any other objects. In click-focus mode, the focus is also transferred to this window. Pressing and holding SELECT and then dragging the mouse will move windows without raising them or setting the focus. If this window is selected, it and all other selected windows are moved simultaneously. Otherwise, just this window is moved, and it is not selected. If you hold down the Control key while you are moving a window, motion is constrained either vertically or horizontally, depending on which direction you move first.
Double-clicking SELECT on the window is the same as selecting the Full Size (or Restore Size) menu item. Clicking ADJUST will toggle the selected state of this window. If other windows or icons are already selected, they remain selected. ADJUST is useful for selecting several windows and icons. Pressing MENU will bring up the window menu. See the Window Menu section for further details. If the Alt key is held down, the mouse button functions become accessible anywhere over the window, not just over the title bar and borders. The modifier used can be changed; see the description of the WMGrab resource in the section on Modifier Customization.
Resize Corners.
You can resize a window by pressing and holding SELECT over any of the resize corners and then dragging the mouse to the new location. Releasing the mouse button will set the new size of the window. If you hold down the Control key while you are dragging, the resize operation is constrained to resize vertically or horizontally, depending on which direction you move first.
Window Button.
The Window Button is the small box with a downward-pointing triangle near the left end of the title bar. Pressing MENU over the window button will bring up the Window Menu. Clicking SELECT over the left mouse button on the Window Button will execute the window menu’s default action. This will usually close the window into an icon. You can change the window menu’s default action by holding down the Control key while manipulating the window menu.
Pushpin.
OPEN LOOK pop-up windows have a pushpin instead of a window button. The pin is either in or out, and you can click SELECT on the pin to move it to the other state. If the pin is out, pressing a command button inside the window will execute the command and then dismiss (take down) the window. If the pin is in, the window is "pinned" to the workspace, and it will remain on the screen even after you have pressed a command button in the window. This allows you to press several command buttons in the same window. Pulling the pin out (by clicking SELECT over it) will dismiss the window immediately.
Icons.
An icon represents a closed window. You can still do most of the same operations as with an open window. Moving and selecting icons with SELECT and ADJUST is exactly the same as for open windows. A similar version of the Window Menu is available on an icon by pressing MENU. Double-clicking SELECT will open the icon. Icons cannot be resized.
You can select a group of windows and icons by using the left or middle mouse buttons over the Workspace (the area of the screen outside of all windows and icons, commonly known as the "root window"). Pressing either SELECT or ADJUST and dragging the mouse will define a rubber-band rectangle. When you release the mouse button, the set of windows and icons enclosed by this rectangle will be operated on. If you created the rectangle using SELECT, the windows and icons within will be selected, and all other objects will be deselected. If you used ADJUST, the objects within will have their selected state toggled, and any other windows and icons already selected will remain selected.
In general, pop-up menus are operated using the MENU mouse button. There are two methods of operating with an OPEN LOOK menu: the "click-move-click" method and the "press-drag-release" method. You choose the method either by clicking the MENU button (pressing and releasing it quickly) or by pressing it down and holding it. If you click the MENU button, the menu will pop up and will stay up indefinitely. To continue operating the menu, click the MENU button over a menu item. To dismiss the menu, click the MENU button on an area of the screen outside the menu. To operate menus in press-drag-release mode, press the MENU button and hold it down while you move the mouse. The menu will remain on the screen as long as you hold down the MENU button. To execute an action, move the pointer over a menu item and release the mouse button. To dismiss the menu, move the pointer outside the menu and release the MENU button.
Some menu items have a sub-menu. This is indicated by a right-pointing triangle at the right edge of the item. To activate a submenu, click on the item (in click-move-click mode) or move the pointer to the item and then move toward the right edge of the menu (in press-drag-release mode).
Some menus have pushpins. If a menu has a pushpin, it will initially be in the "out" state. If you click on the pin (in click-move-click mode) or move over it and release (in press-drag-release mode) you will pin the menu to the workspace. The menu will remain on the screen indefinitely and you can execute commands from it by clicking on its items. To remove the menu, move over the pin and click SELECT on it.
The behavior of menus can be customized using olwm’s resources. In the Global Resources section, see the entries for ClickMoveThreshold, DragRightDistance, MultiClickTimeout, and SelectDisplaysMenu for further information.
Some menus may have "accelerators" defined for them. See the section on Menu Accelerators for further details.
Pressing MENU over the workspace brings up the Workspace Menu. This menu is customizable, but it typically contains at least the following items. (The items may appear in a different language depending on the current locale setting.)
The window menu of most windows has the following items. (The items may appear in a different language depending on the current locale setting.)
OPEN LOOK pop-up windows (as opposed to base windows) have a smaller window menu. It lacks the Close, Full Size, and Quit items, but it has two new items:
You can customize olwm’s Workspace Menu by putting a menu description into a file that olwm will read. When it starts up, olwm will first look for a file named by the OLWMMENU environment variable. If this variable does not exist, or if the file is not readable, olwm will then look in the file named .openwin-menu in your home directory. If this file is not present or is unreadable, olwm will fall back on the system default menu file. If, for some reason, the system default menu file cannot be found, olwm will use a minimal, built-in menu. The menu file that is read can also be modified by the display language locale setting. The locale name is used as a suffix for the filename. If a localized menu file is found, it is used in preference to the non-localized menu file. For example, if the display language locale is "japanese", the file .openwin-menu.japanese will take precedence over the file .openwin-menu.
Olwm will automatically re-read its menu file whenever the menu file changes. This lets you make many small changes to a menu file, trying out the modified menu after each change. The automatic re-reading can be controlled with the AutoReReadMenuFile resource.
If olwm encounters a syntax error during the reading of any menu file, a message is printed to the standard error file and the reading of this menu file is considered to have failed. Olwm will then attempt to read the next file in the sequence as described above.
Each line typically specifies one menu button. There are three fields on each line: a label, the optional keyword DEFAULT, and a command. The label is either a single word or a string enclosed in double quotes. This is the label that appears in the menu button. If the optional keyword DEFAULT appears next, this menu item becomes the default item for this menu. The rest of the line (excluding leading whitespace) is considered to be a command. It is executed by sending it to sh(1) . Any shell metacharacters will be passed through to the shell unchanged. The command field can be extended onto the next line by placing a backslash ‘\’ at the end of the line. The newline will not be embedded in the command.
A sub-menu is specified using the special keyword MENU in place of a command. A button is added to the current menu, and clicking or pulling right on this button will bring up the sub-menu. Subsequent lines in the menu file define buttons for the sub-menu, until a line that has the special keyword END in the command field is encountered. The label of the MENU line must match the label on the END line, otherwise an error is signaled. Sub-menus can be nested arbitrarily, bracketed by MENU and END lines with matching labels.
Sub-menus can be defined in a different file using either the MENU or the INCLUDE keyword. To include a sub-menu from another file, use a line with a label, either the MENU or the INCLUDE keyword, and then the filename. The file so named is assumed to contain lines that specify menu buttons. The sub-menu file need not have any MENU or END lines (unless it has sub-menus itself). The current file need not have a matching END line if the sub-menu is read from another file. Sub-menu files included with the MENU keyword are considered to be an integral part of the menu tree, and any error encountered during reading of the file will cause the entire menu to be considered invalid. A sub-menu file included with the INCLUDE keyword is considered optional, and any error encountered during reading of the file is not considered fatal. If an error occurs during INCLUDE processing, a disabled (grayed-out) item is inserted in place of the sub-menu and processing of the current menu file continues.
To make a sub-menu pinnable, add the special keyword "PIN" after the END keyword on the line that ends the sub-menu definition, or after the TITLE directive (see below).
By default, the label in a menu button is used as the title of the sub-menu. This can be overridden by specifying a line that has the special keyword TITLE in the command field. The label from this line will be used as the sub-menu’s title. This line can appear anywhere in the sub-menu definition. It does not add an item to the menu. In addition, if the PIN keyword follows the TITLE keyword on this line, the sub-menu will be made pinnable. This construct is useful for declaring that a sub-menu defined in a separate file be pinnable.
A line containing only the keyword SEPARATOR will add extra space before the next item.
The following keywords can be used in the command field of a menu item. They specify functions that are internal to olwm, that are not invoked by running a shell.
Here is an example root menu specification.
"My Custom Menu" TITLE Programs MENU "Command Tool" DEFAULT cmdtool "Text Editor" textedit Mail mailtool "File Manager" filemgr Other MENU "Other Tools" TITLE "Shell Tool" shelltool "Icon Editor" iconedit Clock clock "Perf Meter" DEFAULT perfmeter Other END Programs END PIN "Repaint Screen" REFRESH "Properties ..." PROPERTIES Exit EXIT
Olwm will handle colormap installation for windows that have colormaps other than the default colormap. There are two colormap focus modes: "color-follows-mouse" and "color-locked". They are roughly analogous to the corresponding modes for input focus. However, the colormap focus mode can be completely independent of the input focus mode. The mode in which the system starts up is determined by the ColorFocusLocked resource.
Olwm keeps track of a set of windows that are eligible to have their colormaps installed. This set includes all top-level windows of clients. If any clients have specified other windows in a WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property, these windows are included in the set as well. The windows listed in this property need not be top-level windows; they can be nested subwindows as well.
In color-follows-mouse mode, olwm keeps track of the location of the pointer and always keeps installed the colormap of the eligible window underneath the pointer. Thus, you can install the colormap of a particular window simply by sliding the pointer into it. The default colormap will be restored if you move the pointer back out into a window frame or into the workspace. In this mode, the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS properties are tracked for changes, but only to change the set of eligible windows. Changes to these properties only cause colormaps to be installed if the eligible window under the pointer has changed as a result of the set of eligible windows changing. In this mode, no window is considered to have the colormap focus; colormap installation entirely is under control of the user.
In color-locked mode, colormaps are not installed based on pointer motion. Instead, colormaps are installed explicitly by the user using function keys or by a program changing the contents of the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property on its top-level window.
The user can install the colormap of a window (or subwindow listed in the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property) by moving the pointer over the window or subwindow and pressing the Color-Lock key (which is bound to Control-L2 by default). This will install the colormap of the window or subwindow under the pointer, and it will also grant the colormap focus to the top-level window. When a window has the colormap focus, olwm will honor changes to this window’s WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property by installing the colormap of the first window named in this property. In this way, the application whose window has the colormap focus can control colormap installation by altering the contents of the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property.
Note that, according to the ICCCM, if WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS does not include the top-level window, it is assumed to occur first in the list. If you want your program to request colormap installation via changes to WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS, you must make sure that the top-level window appears somewhere in this property. Otherwise, olwm will always install the colormap of the top-level window.
The colormap focus may be given to a window in several other ways. If you press the Color-Lock key over a window’s title bar or border, that window will be given the colormap focus and the first window in the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property will be installed. If the AutoColorFocus resource is set, new windows will be given the colormap focus automatically. If the ColorTracksInputFocus resource is set, the colormap focus will always be given to the window that has the input focus.
If you press the Color-Lock key over the workspace, the default colormap will be installed, and any window with the colormap focus will lose it. The root window is then considered to have the colormap focus. At any time, you can revert to color-follows-mouse mode by pressing the Color-Unlock key. Any window with the colormap focus will lose it.
Olwm provides on-line help through the Magnify Help utility for frames, icons, the Workspace and Window menus, window buttons, resize corners, pushpins, and the Workspace itself. This is done via a separate slave program, olwmslave(1) . The slave program is forked automatically when olwm starts up. The forking of the slave program can be controlled by the RunSlaveProcess resource.
By default, olwm will manage windows on all screens of the display server. Most operations are unchanged from single screen operation. A window exists on a particular screen for its entire lifetime. The window cannot be moved from one screen to another, nor can it be resized to cross a screen boundary. Windows invoked from the Workspace menu will appear on the same screen as the menu. Magnify Help will appear on the same screen as the pointer when the Help key is pressed (F1 on x86 keyboards).
Previous releases required modifications to the user’s .xinitrc script to start multiple instances of olwm, one for each screen. These modifications are no longer necessary. The default Xinitrc (which contains a single invocation of olwm) works for both single and multiple screen situations.
The OpenWindows drag and drop system relies on a third-party client (i.e. a client other than the source or destination clients of a drag and drop operation) to maintain a database of all possible locations on the screen where an object may be dropped. These locations are referred to as ‘‘drop sites.’’ This third party client is thus called the Drop Site Database Manager or DSDM. By default, olwm is configured to provide the DSDM service to clients. This can be controlled using the StartDSDM resource or the -dsdm and -nodsdm command-line options.
If you have customized your Workspace Menu (see the section on Menu Customization) you can add items that use the START_DSDM and STOP_DSDM menu keywords. Invoking a menu item bound to one of these keywords will enable or disable olwm’s providing of the DSDM service.
A standalone client dsdm(1) exists in order to provide the DSDM service in the case where olwm is not running or if it has been directed not to provide the DSDM service. Note that the START_DSDM and STOP_DSDM functions do not run an actual dsdm process; rather, they control whether olwm provides the DSDM service itself. It is not necessary to run dsdm if olwm is providing the DSDM service.
Global resources in olwm consist of two resource components. The first component in the resource name is taken from the trailing pathname component of argv[0]. This value is typically ‘olwm’. This name can be altered by using the -name command-line argument. The second resource component names the global attribute being set. It should be one of the names from the following list. Thus, to set the AutoColorFocus attribute, one would use "olwm.AutoColorFocus" as the resource specification.
Olwm will automatically pick up changes to many of these resources if the resource database changes at run-time. One can thus modify olwm’s behavior by changing the resource database with xrdb(1) or with Workspace Properties. If a resource value is specified on olwm’s command line, it will override the value in the resource database, and thus changing the resource’s value in the database will have no effect on this resource setting.
Some resources are also interpreted by XView (see xview(7) ) and are set by the Workspace Properties program (see props(1) ). For these resources, olwm will also accept the string ‘OpenWindows’ as the first resource component. These resources are marked with an asterisk ‘*’.
Colors can be specified using the formats parsed by the Xlib XParseColor() function. Common formats are color names (see showrgb(1) ) and explicit red, green, and blue values in hexadecimal, preceded by a ‘#’. For example, a cyan (full green and blue) would be specified with "#00ffff".
Boolean values can be specified with the words "true", "false", "on", "off", "yes", "no", "1", "0", "t", and "nil".
olwm.MinimalDecor: calctool clockMany applications will allow you to override the value of the WM_CLASS property using the -name option on the command line. Default value: (null).