NAME

papersway - PaperWM-like window management for Sway/i3wm

VERSION

version 1.000

SYNOPSIS

papersway [--i3status]

DESCRIPTION

This is an implementation of PaperWM-like window management for Sway/i3wm. If you like Sway/i3wm's commitments to stability, avoiding scope creep etc. but dislike the window management model, papersway is an alternative.

OPTIONS

--i3status

Start a background instance of i3status, filter and print its output.

USAGE

Here we discuss how to integrate papersway into your existing Sway/i3wm configuration file, usually found at ~/.config/sway/config or ~/.config/i3/config, as appropriate.

Activation

The recommended way to activate papersway is by using it as your bar command:

bar {
    status_command papersway --i3status

    # [ .. further bar options .. ]
}

This ensures that you can see a visual representation of your paper workspaces, which will be useful while getting the hang of papersway.

Binding keys

Here are some sample bindings to get you started.

set $mod Mod4

bindsym $mod+Left exec papersway-msg focus left
bindsym $mod+Down focus down
bindsym $mod+Up focus up
bindsym $mod+Right exec papersway-msg focus right

bindsym $mod+Shift+Left exec papersway-msg move left
bindsym $mod+Shift+Down move down
bindsym $mod+Shift+Up move up
bindsym $mod+Shift+Right move exec papersway-msg right

bindsym $mod+f exec papersway-msg monocle toggle
bindsym $mod+o exec papersway-msg other column

bindsym $mod+a exec papersway-msg fresh-workspace
bindsym $mod+n exec papersway-msg fresh-workspace send
bindsym $mod+t exec papersway-msg fresh-workspace take

bindsym $mod+e exec papersway-msg absorb_expel left
bindsym $mod+r exec papersway-msg absorb_expel right

bindsym $mod+minus exec papersway-msg cols decr
bindsym $mod+equal exec papersway-msg cols incr

bindsym $mod+i exec papersway-msg workspace prev
bindsym $mod+o exec papersway-msg workspace next
bindsym $mod+Shift+i exec papersway-msg move_workspace prev
bindsym $mod+Shift+i exec papersway-msg move_workspace next

bindsym $mod+c [con_mark=caffeinated] inhibit_idle none; \
    inhibit_idle open, mark caffeinated
bindsym $mod+Shift+c [con_mark=caffeinated] inhibit_idle none, \
    mark --toggle caffeinated
for_window [con_mark=caffeinated] inhibit_idle open

Incompatibilities

The current implementation assumes the default configuration values for the focus_wrapping and workspace_layout configuration options, so remove any customisations you've made to those. You should also unbind the split (and splith etc.), layout, focus parent and focus child commands to avoid confusion (on the parts of both yourself and of papersway).

SEE ALSO

https://github.com/paperwm/PaperWM, i3status(1), sway(5)

AUTHOR

Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2019-2024 by Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>.

This is free software, licensed under:

The GNU General Public License, Version 3, June 2007