FVWMICONMAN(1)

NAME
FvwmIconMan - an fvwm icon manager

SYNOPSIS

FvwmIconMan is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will work.

DESCRIPTION

FvwmIconMan is an icon manager modeled after the TWM icon manager. The user may have multiple icon managers, each of which armed with a list of window types which it manages. For example, the user may have one manager which lists only emacs windows, and another which lists everything else. You may also specify what resolution each icon manager uses, for example, one icon manager may manage windows on all desks, and another may manage only those on the current desk, page or screen. FvwmIconMan can display the miniature icons provided by fvwm for its managed windows. The managers may have a maximum number of columns (and so grows vertically), a maximum number of rows (and then grows horizontally), or stay at a fixed size, and adjust the size of the window buttons to fit (think win95’s Taskbar). And when support is compiled in for the X Shape extension, then the manager windows may be shaped.

You can specify actions to be run when mouse, or key events are received. For example, you could bind the first mouse button to iconify the selected window, and make bindings for the arrow keys to navigate the manager window without the mouse.

FvwmIconMan can be set to display which window currently has the keyboard focus, and by binding the select event (see below) to the fvwm Focus function, you can emulate the TWM icon manager’s behavior.

INITIALIZATION

During initialization, FvwmIconMan searches though the fvwm configuration file for the options which are described below. It is highly recommended that you make FvwmIconMan be a sticky window. And if you want to make use of the followfocus option, and/or binding an action to Focus, then you should make FvwmIconMan clicktofocus. Also, when using the Shape option, it’s recommended that the FvwmIconMan window not be decorated at all by fvwm.

INVOCATION

FvwmIconMan can be invoked by inserting the line 'Module FvwmIconMan' in the .fvwm2rc file. If FvwmIconMan is to be spawned during fvwm’s initialization, then this line should be placed in the StartFunction declarations, or it can be bound to a menu, mouse button, or keystroke to invoke it later.

If you wish to run FvwmIconMan in a transient mode, such as with the built in window list, then pass "-Transient" as an argument. The invocation "Module FvwmIconMan -Transient" will do nicely. In this mode, FvwmIconMan will pop up one manager window directly under the cursor. When the mouse button is released, it will execute the appropriate action, and then exit. Things are somewhat complicated by the fact that you can specify that FvwmIconMan creates multiple manager windows, behavior which is unsuitable when running transiently. So, when running transiently, FvwmIconMan will only create one manager window. Use the manager id 'transient' to specify options for this manager window.

FvwmIconMan may accept an alias name as an argument. For example, "Module FvwmIconMan FvwmIconMan-Variant2".

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS REFERENCE CHART

FvwmIconMan has acquired quite a few options. I assume others share my dislike of paging though a long man page, so here is a terse reference chart describing the available options. They are described in more detail in the next section.
Name | Description | Default
NumManagers | number of managers | 1
Action | binds command to event | Mouse 0 N sendcommand Iconify
Background | default background | gray
ButtonGeometry | size of button in pixels |
Colorset | default colorset |
DontShow | list of windows to ignore |
DrawIcons | use mini icons | false
FocusAndSelectButton |  | flat grey black
FocusAndSelectColorset |  |
FocusButton | style for focused buttons | up grey black
FocusColorset |  |
FollowFocus | show which win has focus | false
Font |  | 8x13
Foreground | default text color | white
Format | describes button label | "%c: %i"
IconName | manager icon name | FvwmIconMan
IconAndSelectButton |  | up black grey
IconAndSelectColorset |  |
IconButton | style for icon buttons | up black grey
IconColorset |  |
ManagerGeometry | size of manager in buttons | 0x1
MaxButtonWidth | max width of a button |
MaxButtonWidthByColumns |  |
NoIconAction | animate iconification | NOP
PlainButton | style for normal buttons | up black grey
PlainColorset |  |
ReliefThickness | size of button relief | 2
Resolution | window filters | desk page
Reverse | normal, icon or none | none
SelectButton | style for selected buttons | flat black grey
SelectColorset |  |
Shape | use shape extension | false
Show | list of windows to show |
ShowOnlyIcons | only icons visible | false
ShowNoIcons | icons are not displayed | false
ShowTransient | transient windows visible | false
ShowOnlyFocused | only focused visible | false
Sort | keep managers sorted | name
SortWeight | weight for sorting |
Tips | Tool Tips mode | none
TipsDelays | Tool Tips mapping delays | 1000 300
TipsFont | Font for Tool Tips | default fvwm font
TipsColorset | Tool Tips Colorset | 0
TipsFormat | describes Tips label | the Format value
TipsBorderWidth | Tool Tips border size | 1
TipsPlacement | Tips placement vs button | updown
TipsJustification | Tips Just vs button | leftup
TipsOffsets | Tips placement Offsets | 3 2
Title | manager title | FvwmIconMan
TitleButton | style for title button | raisededge black grey
TitleColorset |  |
UseWinList | honor WinListSkip? | true

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

With the exception of the nummanagers option, all of the options may be defined on a per-manager basis. So, for example, the user may have his emacs manager with a red foreground, and his xterm manager with a blue one. A configuration line may therefore have one of two forms:

*FvwmIconMan: OptionName OptionValue
    To specify that the OptionName takes the value OptionValue for all managers.

*FvwmIconMan: ManagerId OptionName OptionValue
    To specify that the option OptionName takes the value OptionValue for manager ManagerId. ManagerId may either be a positive integer, or the string "transient". An integer id refers to managers which FvwmIconMan creates when running normally, and an id of "transient" refers to the single manager which FvwmIconMan creates when running transiently.

The old syntax, that uses an asterisk instead of white spaces before ManagerId and OptionName, is supported too, but it is obsolete now.

The following options may be specified:

*FvwmIconMan: NumManagers num
    num is a positive integer specifying the total number of icon managers. Since FvwmIconMan would like to know how many managers there are before handling any manager specific options, this should come first. The default is 1.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Action type binding
    Binds an FvwmIconMan command to an event. Type may be one of the values: Key, Mouse, or Select. Actions are described in the following section ACTIONS.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Background background
    Specifies the default background color.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ButtonGeometry geometry
    Specifies the initial geometry of an individual button in pixels. If the specified height is 0, then the button height is determined from the font size. X and Y coordinates are ignored.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Colorset colorset
    The default colorset used. Overrides background and foreground.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] DrawIcons value
    If your version of fvwm is capable of using mini icons, then this option determines if FvwmIconMan displays the mini icons. Otherwise, it generates an error message. "true" means that mini icons are shown for iconified windows, "false" that mini icons are never shown, and "always" that mini icons are shown for all windows.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusAndSelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons which are both selected, and have the keyboard focus.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusAndSelectColorset colorset
    Works like focusandselectbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with focusandselectbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows have the keyboard focus.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusColorset colorset
    Works like focusbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with focusbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] FollowFocus boolean
    If true, then the button appearance reflects which window currently has focus. Default is false.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Font font
    Specifies the font to be used for labeling the buttons. The default is 8x13.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Foreground foreground
    Specifies the default foreground color.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Format formatstring
    A printf like format string which describes the string to be printed in the manager window for each managed window. Possible flags are: %t, %i, %c, and %r for the window’s title, icon title, class, or resource name, respectively. The default is "%c: %i".

*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconName iconstring
    Specifies the window icon name for that manager window. Iconstring may either be a single word, or a string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan".

*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconAndSelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows are iconified and the button is selected.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows are iconified.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconAndSelectColorset colorset
    Works like IconAndSelectButton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with iconbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconColorset colorset
    Works like iconbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with iconbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ManagerGeometry geometry
    Specifies the initial geometry of the manager, in units of buttons. If height is 0, then the manager will use width columns, and will grow vertically once it has more than width windows. Likewise, if width is 0, it will use height rows, and grow horizontally. If both are nonzero, then the manager window will be exactly that size, and stay that way. As columns are created, the buttons will narrow to accommodate. If the geometry is specified with a negative y coordinate, then the window manager will grow upwards. Otherwise, it will grow downwards.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] MaxButtonWidth width
    Defines a maximum for the width of a button (in pixels). By default there is no maximum. A value of 0 resets the default. The maximum is only used with a non growing manager (the ManagerGeometry option specifies non zero width and height).

*FvwmIconMan: [id] MaxButtonWidthByColumns col
    This is another way to set the button width. col is the number of columns of icons. The button width is determined by dividing the total width of FvwmIconMan by the number of columns. For example if the width of FvwmIconMan manager is 1024, MaxButtonWidthByColumns is 4 then MaxButtonWidth is 256. This is useful when you do not know, at config time, the width of the manager, for example, for a swallowed FvwmIconMan.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] NoIconAction action
    Tells FvwmIconMan to do action when a NoIcon style window is iconified or de-iconified. Relevant coordinates are appended to action so that the icon can be traced to an FvwmIconMan button. An example action is "*FvwwmIconMan: NoIconAction SendToModule FvwmAnimate animate". A blank or null action turns this feature off.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] PlainButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Specifies how normal buttons look. style may be one of flat, up, down, raisededge, or sunkedge, and describes how the button is drawn. The color options are both optional, and if not set, then the default colors are used. If on a monochrome screen, then the style option is ignored, but must still be set.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] PlainColorset colorset
    Works like plainbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with plainbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ReliefThickness num
    num is an integer specifying the number of pixels thick that the relief at the edge of non-flat buttons should be. Setting this to 0 will produce flat buttons, as if the values for FocusAndSelectButton, FocusButton, IconAndSelectButton, IconButton, PlainButton, SelectButton, and TitleButton were all set to flat. If num is negative, the button will be inverted as if you had used Reverse for all classes.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Resolution [filter(s)]
    Specifies a list of filters, separated by spaces, that configure which windows are displayed. If no filters are given, then all windows of the appropriate type are shown (see the show and dontshow options below). Each filter then limits the windows that are displayed and may take one of the following values: desk, page, screen, !desk, !page, !screen, or invert. desk only shows windows on the current desk, and page only shows windows on the current page. !desk and !page only show windows not on the current desk or page respectively. invert reverses the filter displaying the windows that did not match.

    Notes: page and desk are independent. If the only filter is page, then you will see windows on the current page on all desks. To only see windows on the current page and desk (the default) you need both filters, 'desk page'. You can only have one of desk/!desk, page/!page, or screen/!screen, the last one issued take precedence. The invert filter reverses the whole filter so 'invert desk page' is not the same as '!desk !page'. Sticky windows are visible on all pages and desks, so they match all page and desk filters, but won’t match the inverted filter.

    The filters can take additional parameters to state which desk, page, or screen to show (or not show). [!]desk [n] can take the desk number, which will only show windows (not) on the stated desk. [!]page [x] [y] can take the horizontal, x, and vertical, y, page numbers, which will only show windows (not) on the stated page.

    [!]screen [S] shows windows (not) on monitor S, which can be:

        • NAME: The "NAME" of the specific RandR monitor.

        • c: The current RandR monitor (containing the pointer)

        • p: The primary RandR monitor

        • g: The global monitor

    Since all windows are on the global monitor, screen g effectively does nothing. c is the current monitor at the time resolution is issued, and once set will not change. This filter is best used with a RandR NAME.

    This configuration line is respected when FvwmIconMan is running as well, the resolution is changed dynamically when sent to fvwm.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Reverse class
    Causes certain classes of buttons to have their relief lines reversed so that up and down styles are reversed. This has no affect on flat buttons. The class can be icon, normal or none. The default is none.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] SelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons when the mouse is over them.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] SelectColorset colorset
    Works like selectbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with selectbutton.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Shape boolean
    If True, then use make the window shaped. Probably only useful if you have multiple columns or rows. If FvwmIconMan wasn’t compiled to support the Shape extension, this generates an error message. When using shaped windows, it’s recommended that a fvwm style is made for FvwmIconMan that has no borders. Otherwise, fvwm will get confused.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Sort value
    If name, then the manager list is sorted by name. If namewithcase, then it is sorted by name sensitive to case. If id, then the manager list is sorted by the window id, which never changes after the window is created. If weighted, then the manager list is sorted by weight (see the description of sortweight below). Or it can be set to none, which results in no sorting. Default is name.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] SortWeight weight pattern-list
    Assigns the specified weight to windows that match pattern-list. The list is made up of patterns of the form type=pattern, where type is one of class, resource, title, or icon, and pattern is an expression of the same format used in the fvwm style command (minimalistic shell pattern matching). Multiple sort weights can be given. Each window is matched against the list of sort weights, in order, and is given the weight from the first match. Lower-weighted windows are placed first in the manager list. For example:

          *FvwmIconMan: Sort weighted
          *FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 1 class=XTerm title=special*
          *FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 10 class=XTerm
          *FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 5

    In this example, xterm windows whose titles start with "special" (weight 1) are listed first, followed by everything but other xterms (weight 5), and the other xterms (weight 10) are listed last. If no default weight (empty pattern list) is given, the default weight is 0. Only relevant if the sort type is set to weighted.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Title title-string
    Specifies the window title string for that manager window. Titlestring may either be a single word, or a string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan". This will be drawn in the title bar of the manager window, if any, and in the title button, which is the button drawn when the manager is empty.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TitleButton style [forecolor backcolor]
    Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of the title button (the button drawn when the manager is empty). The manager’s title is drawn in the title button.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] UseWinList boolean
    If true, then honor the WinListSkip style flag. Otherwise, all windows are subject to possible management according to the show and dontshow lists.

    The two following options control which windows get handled by which managers. A manager can get two lists, one of windows to show, and one of windows to ignore. If only the show list is given, then that manager will show only the windows in the list. If only the DontShow list is given, then the manager will show all windows except those in the list. If both lists are given, then a window will be shown if it is not in the DontShow list, and in the Show list. And finally, if neither list is given, then the manager will handle all windows. Each list is made up of patterns of the form type=pattern, where type is one of class, resource, title, or icon, and pattern is an expression of the same format used in the fvwm style command (minimalistic shell pattern matching). Quotes around the pattern will be taken as part of the expression. If a window could be handled by more than one manager, then the manager with the lowest id gets it.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Show pattern list
    If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may be handled by this manager.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] DontShow pattern list
    If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may not be handled by this manager.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowTransient boolean
    Show transient windows in the list (default false).

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowOnlyIcons boolean
    Only iconified windows are shown if boolean is true.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowNoIcons boolean
    Only windows that are not iconified are shown if boolean is true.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowOnlyFocused boolean
    Only window with the focus is shown if boolean is true.

    The following two options control tips.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] Tips value
    where value can be always, needed or false. Default is false, no tips are displayed. With always, tips are enabled. With needed, a tip is displayed only if either the button string is truncated or the tip string is not equal to the button string. This configuration line is respected when FvwmIconMan is running as well.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsDelays delay [mappeddelay]
    where delay and mappeddelay are time out values in milliseconds. If no mappeddelay is given delay is assumed. Default is 1000 300. When the cursor is on a button, FvwmIconMan wait delay milliseconds before displaying the tip. In the case where a tip is already mapped and the cursor goes to another button, FvwmIconMan waits mappeddelay milliseconds before displaying the new tip.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsFont fontname
    Specifies the font to be used for tips. Default is the default fvwm font.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsColorset colorset
    Specifies the colors for tips window. Default is colorset 0.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsFormat formatstring
    Similar to the Format option but for the tips window. The default is the format string from the Format option.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsBorderWidth pixels
    Specifies the border width (in pixels) of the tips window. Default is 1.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsPlacement value
    where value can be up, down, right, left, updown or leftright. This value specifies the position of the tips window relative to its button. Default is updown where buttons on the top half of the screen get tips below the button, otherwise the tips are above the button.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsJustification value
    where value can be leftup, rightdown or center. Specifies the justification (direction) of the tips window relative to its button after the tips window has been placed. Default is leftup which means that if a tip is placed above or below its button, then the left border of the tip and of the button are aligned. If the tip is placed on the left or on the right of its button, leftup aligns the top borders. rightdown and center work like leftup but in different directions. The alignment is adjusted by the TipsOffset option. See next option.

*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsOffsets placementoffset justoffset
    where placementoffset and justoffset are offsets in pixels for the TipsPlacement and TipsJustification configuration option. Default is 3 2.

ACTIONS

Actions are commands which may be bound to an event of the type: a key press, a mouse click, or the mouse entering a window manager button - denoted by the action types Key, Mouse, and Select.

Normally, actions bound to a mouse click are executed when the button is pressed. In transient mode, the action is executed when the button is released, since it is assumed that FvwmIconMan was bound to some mouse event. A tip/warning: FvwmIconMan still keeps track of the mouse button and any modifier keys in this case, so if you bind FvwmIconMan to say, meta-button3, then it would be wise to ensure that the action you want to execute will be executed when the meta-button3 event occurs (which would be the button release, assuming you kept your finger on the meta key).

The syntax for actions are:

Key actions: Key Keysym Modifiers FunctionList
    Keysym and Modifiers are exactly the same as for the fvwm Key command.

Mouse actions: Mouse Button Modifiers FunctionList
    Button and Modifiers are exactly the same as for the fvwm Mouse command.

Select actions: Select FunctionList
    A FunctionList is a sequence of commands separated by commas. They are executed in left to right order, in one shared context - which currently only contains a pointer to the "current" button. If a button is selected (typically by the mouse pointer sitting on it) when the action is executed, then the current button is initialized to that button. Otherwise, it points to nothing.

Most of the available commands then modify this "current" button, either by moving it around, making it become the selected button, or sending commands to fvwm acting on the window represented by that button. Note that while this current button is initialized to be the selected button, the selected button does not implicitly follow it around. This way, the user can send commands to various windows, without changing which button is selected.

Commands take five types of arguments: Integer, Manager, Window, Button, and String. A String is a string specified exactly as for fvwm - either in quotes or as a single word not in quotes. Again, you may bind a sequence of commands to an event, by listing them separated by commas.

Window and Button types look exactly the same in the .fvwm2rc file, but are interpreted as either specifying a managed window, or a FvwmIconMan button representing a window. They can either be an integer (which is interpreted module N where N is the number of buttons - so 0 is the first and -1 is the last), or one of the strings: Select, Focus, Up, Down, Right, Left, Next, Prev. Select and Focus refer to the currently selected or focused button or window. Up, Down, Right, and Left refer to the button or window above, below, to the right of, or to the left of the current button in the manager window, allowing navigation around the manager window. Next and Prev designates the window, button, or manager after or before the current button, allowing navigation of the one dimensional list of windows which is drawn in the manager window. If the manager is sorted, Next and Prev move through the windows in the sorted order.

The Manager type can either be an integer, Next, or Prev. The meaning is analogous to that of the Button type, but in terms of the integral index of the managers, restricted to managers which are nonempty.

The following functions are currently defined:

bif Button Integer/String
    A relative branch instruction. If Button is Select or Focus, then take the branch if there is a selected button or a focused button. If Button is an integer, then branch if nonzero. If it is one of Up, Down, Right, Left, Next, Prev, then the branch is taken when the current button can move in that direction. If the branch is taken, then Integer commands are skipped. No backwards branches are allowed.

bifn Button Integer/String
    The complement of bif. The branch is taken if Button evaluates to false, by the criteria listed for bif.

gotobutton Button
    Sets current button to Button. If Button is an integer, then the current button is set to Button modulo the number of buttons, in the whichever manager contains the selected button, if any.

gotomanager Manager
    Sets button to button 0 of Manager. This will only go to a visible, nonempty manager. So an integral argument is taken modulo the number of such managers.

jmp Integer/String
    Executes a relative jump of Integer instructions. Backwards jumps are not allowed. The jump is computed relative to the instruction following the jmp.

label String
    Provides a label that previous instructions can jump to. It will not be visible to subsequent jump instructions, and the same label can be used multiple times in the same instruction list (though it would be perverse to do so.)

print String
    Prints String to the console. Useful for debugging actions.

printdebug
    Prints defined actions to the console. Should only be used by developers. To enable this command, set CONFIG and FUNCTIONS variables to '1' in the modules/FvwmIconMan/debug.h and recompile this module.

quit
    Quits FvwmIconMan.

refresh
    Causes all manager windows to redraw themselves.

ret
    Stop executing the entire action.

searchback String
    Sets button to button before the current one whose printed string in the manager window matches specified String, which may contain wildcards.

searchforward String
    Sets button to button after the current one whose printed string in the manager window matches specified String, which may contain wildcards.

select
    Selects the current button, if any. If a select action has been specified, it will then be run. Therefore, it is considered unwise to set the select button in the select action.

sendcommand Command
    Sends the fvwm command Command to the window represented by the current button, if any.

warp
    Warps cursor to current button, if any.

Examples:

    gotobutton select, gotobutton Down, select

Selects the button below the currently selected button. Since the current button is already initialized to the selected button, this may be shortened to "gotobutton Down, select".

    gotobutton Up, select

Selects the button above the currently selected button.

    gotobutton 0, select

Selects the first button of the current manager. If there is no current manager, which is the case when no button is selected, then this does nothing.

    gotobutton -1, select

Selects the last button of the current manager.

    gotobutton focus, select

Selects the button corresponding to the focused window.

    gotobutton focus, Iconify

Sends the fvwm command Iconify to the focused window. Note that this does not change the selected button.

    bif Next 3, gotobutton 0, select, ret, gotobutton Next, select

If a button is selected, and it’s the last button, go to button 0. If it’s not the last button, go to the next button. Otherwise, do nothing. Basically, this action cycles through all buttons in the current manager.

    bif select 7, bif focus 3, gotomanager 0, select, ret, gotobutton focus, \
    select, ret, gotobutton down, select

This is good for sending to FvwmIconMan with a SendToModule command. If there is a selected button, it moves down. Otherwise, if there is a focused button, it is selected. Otherwise, button 0 of manager 0 gets selected.

    bif select Select, bif focus Focus, gotomanager 0, select, ret, label Focus, \
    gotobutton focus, select, ret, label Select, gotobutton down, select

Same as previous, but using the label instruction.

In addition to being bound to keys and mice, actions can be sent from fvwm to FvwmIconMan via the SendToModule command. Don’t quote the command when using SendToModule. Also, due to a bug in the current version of fvwm, don’t quote FvwmIconMan either.

SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS

This first example is of a the simplest invocation of FvwmIconMan, which only has one manager, and handles all windows:

    ##############################################################
    # Load any modules which should be started during
    # fvwm initialization
    ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/fvwm:/usr/bin/X11
    Module FvwmIconMan

    # Make FvwmIconMan title-bar-less, sticky, and give it an icon
    Style "Fvwm*"      Icon toolbox.xpm,NoTitle,NoHandles,Sticky
    Style "FvwmIconMan" HandleWidth 5, Handles, BorderWidth 5

    ##############################################################
    ##############################################################
    #Definitions used by the modules

    *FvwmIconMan: NumManagers        1
    *FvwmIconMan: Resolution         global
    *FvwmIconMan: Background         slategrey
    *FvwmIconMan: Foreground         white
    *FvwmIconMan: Font               7x13
    *FvwmIconMan: ButtonGeometry     100x0
    *FvwmIconMan: ManagerGeometry    1x0-0+0

This example is the Reader’s Digest version of my personal configuration. It has two managers, one for emacs and one for everything else, minus things with no icon title. Only windows on the current page are displayed. The use of the drawicons and shape options requires that fvwm and FvwmIconMan are compiled with the correct options. Note how the geometry and show options are specified per manager, and the others are common to all:

    Style "FvwmIconMan"  NoTitle, Sticky, WindowListSkip, BorderWidth 0
    Style "FvwmIconMan"  HandleWidth 0

    Key F8 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, \
      gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, \
      gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, \
      gotobutton prev, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow
    Key F9 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, \
      gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, \
      gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, \
      gotobutton next, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow

    *FvwmIconMan: NumManagers 2
    *FvwmIconMan: Resolution  page
    *FvwmIconMan: Background  steelblue
    *FvwmIconMan: Foreground  white
    *FvwmIconMan: Font        7x13
    *FvwmIconMan: UseWinList  true
    *FvwmIconMan: DrawIcons   true
    *FvwmIconMan: Shape       true
    *FvwmIconMan: FollowFocus true
    *FvwmIconMan: Sort        name
    *FvwmIconMan: PlainButton          up white steelblue
    *FvwmIconMan: SelectButton         down white steelblue
    *FvwmIconMan: FocusButton          up white brown
    *FvwmIconMan: FocusAndSelectButton down white brown
    *FvwmIconMan: TitleButton          raisededge white steelblue
    *FvwmIconMan: NoIconAction         "SendToModule FvwmAnimate animate"

    *FvwmIconMan: 1 Title           "Emacs windows"
    *FvwmIconMan: 1 IconName        "FvwmIconMan: Emacs"
    *FvwmIconMan: 1 Format          "%i"
    *FvwmIconMan: 1 Show            resource=emacs resource=gemacs
    *FvwmIconMan: 1 ManagerGeometry 1x0-400+0
    *FvwmIconMan: 1 ButtonGeometry  200x0

    *FvwmIconMan: 2 Title           "All windows"
    *FvwmIconMan: 2 IconName        "FvwmIconMan: all"
    *FvwmIconMan: 2 Format          "%c: %i"
    *FvwmIconMan: 2 DontShow        icon=Untitled
    *FvwmIconMan: 2 ManagerGeometry 2x4-0+0
    *FvwmIconMan: 2 ButtonGeometry  200x0

    *FvwmIconMan: transient Geometry 194x100
    *FvwmIconMan: transient DontShow icon=Untitled
    *FvwmIconMan: transient Action   Mouse 0 A sendcommand select select Iconify

    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Mouse        1 N sendcommand Iconify
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Mouse        2 N sendcommand WarpToWindow
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Mouse        3 N sendcommand "Module FvwmIdent FvwmIdent"
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Key        Left  N gotobutton Left, select
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Key        Right N gotobutton Right, select
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Key        Up    N gotobutton Up, select
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Key        Down  N gotobutton Down, select
    *FvwmIconMan: Action        Key        q     N quit

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

There is one bug that I know of. A honest to goodness solution to this would be appreciated. When an icon manager is set to grow upwards or leftwards, on some machines it may wander occasionally.

It doesn’t handle windows without resource names as gracefully as it should.

AUTHOR

Brady Montz (

THANKS

Thanks to: David Berson Gren Klanderman David Goldberg Pete Forman Neil Moore Josh M. Osborne Adam Rice <Chris Siebenmann Bjorn Victor for contributing either code or truly keen ideas.