xmenu now can be operated by keyboard
[xmenu] / xmenu.1
CommitLineData
08f16589 1.TH PROG 1
2.SH NAME
3xmenu \- menu utility for X
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B xmenu
6.RB [ \-w ]
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B xmenu
9is a menu for X,
10it reads a list of newline-separated items from stdin,
11shows a menu for the user to select one of the items,
12and outputs the item selected to stdout.
13.PP
14The options are as follows:
15.TP
16.B -w
17Asks the window manager to draw a border around the menus.
18Without this options, the menus do not have border drawn by the window manager.
19.PP
20Each item read from stdin has the following format:
21.IP
22.EX
23ITEM := TABS LABEL TABS COMMAND NEWLINE
24.EE
25.PP
26That means, each item is composed by
27tabs, followed by a label, followed by more tabs, followed by a command,
28and ended by a newline.
29.IP
30The initial tabs indicate the menu hierarchy:
31items indented with a tab is shown in a submenu of the preceding item not indented.
32.IP
33The label is the string that will be shown as a item in the menu.
34An item without label is considered a separator and is drawn as a thin line in the menu
35separating the item above from the item below.
36.IP
37The command is the string that will be output after selecting the item.
38.IP
39The newline terminates the item specification.
858338d9 40.SH USAGE
41.B xmenu
42is controlled by the mouse,
43but can also be controlled by the keyboard.
44Items can be selected using the arrow keys,
45Tab (with and without Shift),
46Enter and Esc.
47.TP
48.BR Down ", " Tab
49Cycle through the items in the regular direction.
50.TP
51.BR Up ", " Shift-Tab
52Cycle through the items in the reverse direction.
53.TP
54.BR Right ", " Enter
55Select the highlighted item.
56.TP
57.B Left
58Go to the menu above.
59.TP
60.B Esc
61Go to the menu above or exit xmenu.
f644b8bc 62.SH RESOURCES
63.B
64xmenu
65understands the following X resources.
66.TP
67.B xmenu.font
68The font in which the labels should be drawn.
69.TP
70.B xmenu.background
71The background color of non-selected itens in the menu.
72.TP
73.B xmenu.foreground
74The color of the label text of non-selected itens in the menu.
75.TP
76.B xmenu.selbackground
77The background color of selected itens in the menu.
78.TP
79.B xmenu.selforeground
80The color of the label text of selected itens in the menu.
81.TP
82.B xmenu.border
83The color of the border around the menu.
84.TP
85.B xmenu.separator
86The color of the separator between itens in the menu.
87.TP
88.B xmenu.width
89The minimum width, in pixels, of the items in the menu.
90.TP
91.B xmenu.itemborder
92The size in pixels of the border around the label text in items in the menu.
93.TP
94.B xmenu.menuborder
95The size in pixels of the border around the menu.
96.TP
97.B xmenu.separatorsize
98The size in pixels of the item separator.
99
08f16589 100.SH EXAMPLES
101The following is an script exemplifying the use
102.BR xmenu .
103The output is redirected to xargs to make a command to be run by the shell.
104.IP
105.EX
106#!/bin/sh
107
858338d9 108cat <<EOF | xmenu | xargs sh -c
08f16589 109Applications
110 Web Browser firefox
111 Image editor gimp
112Terminal (xterm) xterm
113Terminal (urxvt) urxvt
114Terminal (st) st
115
116Shutdown poweroff
117Reboot reboot
118EOF
119.EE
120.PP
121For example, by selecting \(lqApplications\(rq, a new menu will appear.
122Selecting \(lqWeb Browser\(rq in the new menu will open firefox.
123.SH SEE ALSO
124.IR dmenu (1),
125.IR 9menu (1),
126.IR thingmenu (1)